About us
History
Within the group of companies of the Joh. Gottfr. Schütte Group, founded in 1792, the company can look back on a long and successful history. The first group-owned import and trade of tea can be dated back to 1841. These activities were then continuously expanded, so that in 1980, the company Agro-Exportgesellschaft Preto mbH was spun off as an independent subsidiary.
In the years 1989/1990, own test shops were opened in city centres and pedestrian passages in order to better understand the needs of the tea shops and to react to them appropriately. The name “SinAss” was chosen for the shops as an acronym for the two varieties of the tea plant Camelia sinensis. Sin stood for “C. sinensis var. sinensis” and Ass stood for “C. sinensis var. assamica”. This name was also adopted for the main business in 1990 and the company was renamed “SinAss Tee-Handel GmbH & Co KG”. Parallel to this step the business activities were expanded from Germany to Austria and Switzerland.
Starting in 1998, the company’s own imports were expanded and professionalized, creating the necessary independence to be able to trade quality teas globally and professionally. A field in which the company still has one of its main competences. As a consequence, the distribution was extended to the international, first European, then non-European markets. As a result, the main part of the sales activities today is in the export sector, but even there the high quality standards still apply, as they are still practised on the German market.
Through continuous investment in the company, the production conditions were constantly improved and expanded. In 2012, the company moved into its own production and storage facilities, thus achieving further flexibility with regard to customer requirements and fast processing.
An important step in the modernization process was the relaunch in 2017 as “sinas GmbH & Co KG”. This also ensured that, in the course of the progressive internationalization, the name components would continue to be recognized phonetically correct, as was intended at the beginning.
Our philosophy
For us, quality is not a mere necessity, but a matter of course. This claim can be aptly described with a quote from the British writer John Ruskin:
“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. There must be the will to produce a superior thing.”
Furthermore, over the years we have developed our very own motto, which perfectly illustrates our combination of quality and customer-oriented service:
“Small enough for Quality, big enough to serve you”
Good qualities are often only available in limited quantities. We deliberately supply only to specialty suppliers and not to the mass market. This enables us to maintain quality standards and offer you even unusual teas.
Competence
Quality as recognition feature and quality as basic attitude. We follow this maxim and it clearly shows our competence in the tea sector. As a pure tea trading company we can act with a strong expertise, which results in good products and service for you.
Due to our close and trusting cooperation with our suppliers and producers in the countries of origin, we can offer you an extensive range of orthodox specialities.
We also use our know-how in tea to create our flavoured tea blends. Here it is important for us not only to create a standard tea, but to lay the foundation for the next innovative trends on the tea market with special ingredients, selected teas and a creative selection of flavours. Be it flavoured orthodox teas, exciting fruit blends or soothing herbal teas, all are designed with great attention to detail.
With this dedication, we are also happy to develop your personal special blends, which are created exactly according to your ideas.
To react competently and flexibly to your wishes is just as natural for us. Do you need suggestions or ideas? Background information on a tea or advice on putting together your range? We are at your side with our knowledge.
A high level of employee responsibility enables us to offer you completely individual solutions.
Activities at origin
We as sinas obtain our teas directly from all important tea growing regions of the world: India, Nepal, Ceylon, China, Taiwan, Japan, Africa and other countries.
Not only the high quality of the tea is important to us, but also sustainable trade. We obtain our goods from carefully selected and certified suppliers and tea producers who share the same philosophy as we do. Through these partners we buy our teas at fair prices in order to be jointly responsible for fair working conditions. Conversely, this results in above-average product quality, which we are of course happy to pass on to you.
Social commitment and sustainability have always played an important role for us. For example, we began to import tea intensively from Nepal as early as the beginning of the 2000s, thus helping to establish important local infrastructure.
In order to bring humanitarian aid back to the source in a targeted manner, we launched our own in-house project “Direct & Fair” in 2013. The aim of this project is to enable you to directly support social projects with selected products from our catalogue by donating a small amount of money, which we will then top up with our own funds. In addition to providing direct help to those who need it, this is intended to create a positive example that will initiate further private and political commitment. Through public work, for example, provincial governments are encouraged to do their own part and invest in the various regions.
Of course we always accompany these projects on site.
