Köping Tea Company
The Köping Tea Company (Hurmu: Köpings Tjasamlag) is a wholesaler of tea and other beverages, including coffee, hot chocolate and malt drinks, based in Kaupang. The company consists of a consortium of tea houses and tea merchants brought together by the Society for Benevolent Investment. The Company operates a network of tea houses in the Hurmu Trust Territory and the International Mandate, along with a tea blending and packing plant in Kaupang. The Company also has an overseas community of tea buyers in South Lyrica, and Keltia, along with a further team of commercial agents seeking to organise sales in international markets, particularly those of the Raspur Pact in Benacia, Cibola, Eura, and Tapfer. In Benacia in particular the Company seeks to break into a market hitherto dominated by Elwynnese blends (themselves ironically of Hurmu origin historically) whilst also making an inroad into the overwhelming Southern Benacian preference for coffee as the stimulant drink of choice.
As of 1690, the Company actively sought to commence operations in Chryse as soon as circumstances were favourable. It achieved a marketing coup by concluding a marketing and distribution agreement with ESB Shincha Business, with the latter serving as exclusive importer and distributor for the Imperial State of Constancia. A similar marketing and distribution agreement was also concluded with the Transegale Trading Company for the Principality of Arboria, the Viscounty of Lumenetra in the Duchy of the Guttuli, and the Lordship of Delfinenstrand in the Principality of Whales.
The decade after the restoration of Hurmu sovereignty has seen the company investing heavily to establish a network of consortia-owned tea plantations throughout the Southern District, whose details are withheld from the public domain on account of the strict privacy by-laws enacted in the south.
The company was nationalized by the socialist government in the 1719 state budget. It had through the reorganization of the state passed into the ownership of the Order of the Holy Lakes. Officers attempting to enforce the transfer of ownership were ordered to desist from their efforts by the First Secretary and the company returned to its former owners, with the promise of a negotiated settlement concerning compensation for the period of illegal forfeiture.
