By Luke Voogt
A Geelong tea brewer has received $750,000, creating 20 new jobs for the city.
Australian Tea Masters director Sharyn Johnston was thrilled to receive the State Government grant.
“It’s really helpful to us,” the Bell Post Hill local said on Thursday.
“We haven’t had any funding before – we’ve built it all (over five years) from one bowl of tea.“
Sharyn returned to Australia on Sunday following the World’s Highest Cupping at Mount Everest.
She flew to Everest Base Camp in an army helicopter, where she sipped tea with other experts from across the world.
Organisers only allowed the brewers to stay at the base camp for three hours due to oxygen shortages at that altitude.
“It was amazing!” Sharyn said.
Sharyn planned to start hiring new workers during the next eight weeks for the company, which already supplies tea to Singapore, Indonesia and Korea.
“It will definitely be a boost for us jobwise,” she said.
The funding will support a new organically certified tea-blending area, training facilities and a warehousing centre in Breakwater.
Sharyn also planned to install a bottling line, conveyor belts, tea-bagging machines, an industrial kitchen and a purpose built tea blender.
The funding would allow the company to expand its business across Asia, Geelong MP Christine Couzens announced at its headquarters on Wednesday.
“It’s great to see Australian Tea Masters investing in Geelong,” she said.
