Wissotzky Tea
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Native name
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תה ויסוצקי |
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| Tea Company | |
| Founded | Moscow, Russia 1849 |
| Founder | Kalonimus Wolf Wissotzky |
| Headquarters | Tel Aviv, Israel |
Wissotzky Tea is an international, family-owned tea company based in Israel with offices in London and the United States. It is the leading tea distributor in Israel. Founded in 1849 in Moscow, Russia, it is one of the oldest tea companies in the world.
The Wissotzky Tea Company was founded in 1849 by Kalonimus Wolf Wissotzky (Kalman-Volf, Vulf Yankelevich) in Moscow, Russia. born to a poor family of merchants from Žagarė, who recognized the potential in the trading of tea. Wissotzky Tea soon gained devoted customers all over the Russian Empire and by 1904 the company extended its activities to Germany, France, New York and Canada. In 1907 Wissotzky established the Anglo-Asiatic company with its head offices in London, managed by Ahad Ha'am, a renowned Jewish writer and philosopher. He had joined the company in 1903 on his resignation as editor of Ha-Shiloach, a Zionist journal. The company acquired plantations in both India and Ceylon (present Sri Lanka).
From the early 1900s through 1917, Wissotzky Tea Company was the largest tea company in the world. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, in 1917 all private businesses in the Russian empire were immediately nationalized by the government, yet it took two more years to complete the takeover of Wissotzky Tea. This is mostly due to the social benefits provided by the company to their many employees.
In 1917 the company gradually ceased its operations in Russia, and the Wissotzky family emigrated to the U.S and Europe, opening branches in Italy, Danzig, Poland, and additional European countries.
In the years following the Russian Revolution, Wissotzky Tea Company activities centered in London as its headquarters where it was managed by Boris Lourie and in Danzig, Poland. The operation in Danzig was run by Alexander Chmerling and Solomon Seidler, a tea specialist and scion of the Wissotzky family. Due to the vast emigration from Russia, the Polish facility catered to the demand for the tea they were accustomed to back home.
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Wikipedia