Whanganui's Whitney Nicholls-Potts is partnering with Air New Zealand's Ka Rere programme to expand her tea business, Kaputī Studio. Photo / Ashley Church
Whanganui's Whitney Nicholls-Potts is partnering with Air New Zealand's Ka Rere programme to expand her tea business, Kaputī Studio. Photo / Ashley Church
Whanganui-based tea business Kaputī Studio will receive a $20,000 cash grant, 12 weeks of mentoring and a chance to supply Air New Zealand.
The airline’s Ka Rere programme works with small Māori and Pasifika-owned businesses.
“At first it was just selling cups of tea and then we started doing packets and started an online store. It just organically evolved,” she said.
Nicholls-Potts believes Whanganui’s creative culture helped her develop Kaputī Studio.
“You’re surrounded by a lot of creativity so it’s a good nourishing environment for thinking about ideas,” she said.
“Sometimes when you’re in a big city there’s a real push for productivity but living here has helped me to slow down and really strengthen my ideas and dream a bit more.”
Nicholls-Potts was inspired to work with tea through her childhood and an early job.
Whitney Nicholls-Potts, owner of Whanganui-based tea company Kaputī Studio, is supplying Air New Zealand events for the Ka Rere programme. Photo / Ashley Church
“It’s something that has always been a connector in my life and growing up. I worked at t Leaf T in Wellington while I was at uni and started making my own blends there,” she said.
“That’s where I started understanding the world of tea.”
Growing up, she enjoyed the “connection moments”, drinking billy tea on her grandparents’ land and having a cup of tea at the marae.
“There’s all these different experiences that we need, like we need our morning cup of coffee and we need a really nice afternoon earl grey and we need a tea before bed, or a tea to serve with meals,” she said.
Nicholls-Potts is one of three to participate in this iteration of the programme, along with The Sustainable Food Co and Stronghold Group from Auckland.
“It’s first and foremost a mentoring programme, so they give me 12 weeks of mentoring with really incredible brains in their operation sharing knowledge and sharing experience,” Nicholls-Potts said.
She has already been given the opportunity to do “tea activations” for Air New Zealand events and hopes to use the programme to expand Kaputī Studio further.
“I want to see if we can come up with some really cool collaborations, do some regional blends and hopefully put some story-telling around it. And of course, the big dream would be to be in-flight but the volume needed is massive,” she said.
“It’s nice to be forming a relationship with them that feels really genuine and mutually beneficial.”
Another goal for Kaputī Studio is expanding from an online store to supermarkets.
“One of our big goals is to create a supermarket range so that we can get into new homes in Aotearoa,” Nicholls-Potts said.
“It will be quite different because you have to make it in such large volumes while still trying to stay close to our values.”
Nicholls-Potts hopes to take her business to the world.
“We experience other people’s tea culture so it would be beautiful if we could also participate in that exchange in sharing our tea culture with the world.
“What Air New Zealand is seeing is the value in us being able to have this knowledge exchange and it’s just felt so genuine and you feel the manaakitanga in every layer of the business.
“I think it’s really positive and worth highlighting because these things are really powerful because it’s good for them and it brings them back down to the people level, and it’s good for me because it helps me to dream bigger and achieve my goals with their support,” she said.
Air New Zealand chief sustainability and corporate affairs officer Kiri Hannifin said the programme was a “two-way exchange that strengthens our supply chain and our communities”.
“Ka Rere is about more than just opening doors, it’s about walking alongside these businesses and sharing the knowledge, networks and tools that can help them thrive.”
Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.
