Celestial Seasonings

Celestial Seasonings is a tea company based in Boulder, Colorado, United States that specializes in herbal teas (tisanes), but also sells green, white, chai, and black teas. Their annual gross sales are approximately $100,000,000.[1]

Celestial Seasonings
Subsidiary
IndustryTea
Founded1969 (1969)
HeadquartersBoulder, Colorado
Key people
Peter Burns, President
ProductsHerbal tea
ParentHain Celestial Group
Websitewww.celestialseasonings.com

History
Celestial Seasonings Tasting Room

Celestial Seasonings founders Mo Siegel, John Hay, Peggy Clute and others started gathering herbs and flowers in the mountains around Boulder and selling them to local health-food stores in 1969. The company name was derived from co-founder Lucinda Ziesings' nickname.[2]

In the 1970s, the company created herbal tea blends (such as Sleepytime and Red Zinger) and moved to larger headquarters twice; by 1977 the company began selling internationally. Celestial Seasonings also created and sponsored the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic race in Colorado during the 1970s.

Celestial Seasonings was purchased by Kraft Foods in 1984.[3][4] Mo Siegel retired in 1986, and the next year, Kraft announced they would sell Celestial Seasonings to Lipton.[5] The sale was successfully challenged by Bigelow under anti-trust laws, and local management purchased the company back from Kraft in 1988.

In 1990, Celestial Seasonings moved into new headquarters in a custom-designed facility in North Boulder. Mo Siegel returned in 1991, to serve as CEO.

Celestial Seasonings merged with natural food company the Hain Food Group in 2000 to form the Hain Celestial Group. Mo Siegel retired for the second time in 2002.

In 2013 Hain Celestial became one of 25 companies targeted in an ongoing class action lawsuit regarding allegations of falsely labeling their personal care products (including Celestial Seasonings) as 'organic' under California law (California Products Act of 2003) to mislead consumers into purchasing them.[6][7][8][9]

In 2015 Hain Celestial Group reached a settlement and agreed to pay consumers a $7.5 million compensation for mislabeling their products with an additional $2.4 million worth of coupons.[10][11][12]

References
  1. Modern Marvels: "Tea Education" (episode 553), December 13, 2006.
  2. Celestial Seasonings' Interactive Timeline. Accessed Feb 14, 2008.
  3. Sanger, D. E. (1984). "Kraft to Buy Celestial". The New York Times.
  4. "Kraft Agrees to Buy Celestial Seasonings". (1984). The Washington Post.
  5. John Gorman (1987-12-08). "Kraft Sells Celestial Seasonings". Articles.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
  6. Joanna Lin (June 20, 2011). "Organic Product Lawsuit: Center for Environmental Health Sues Dozens". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  7. https://www.truthinadvertising.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Von-Slomski-v.-The-Hain-Celestial-Group-.pdf
  8. Beth Winegarner (November 6, 2014). "Hain Celestial Buyers Seek Class Cert. On 'Organic' Claims". Law360. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  9. Beth Winegarner (September 17, 2014). "Hain Mini-Waffles 'Natural' Label Could Mislead, Judge Says". Law360. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  10. Aisha Al-Muslim. "Hain Celestial settles mislabeling lawsuit for nearly $10 million". Newsday.
  11. "$9.4M Settlement Reached in Hain Organic Consumer Fraud Class Action Lawsuit". BigClassAction.com.
  12. Kali Hays. "Hain Celestial Inks $9.4M Deal To End Organic Labeling Suit". Law 360.
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