ITO EN

The founding of Japan Family Service, the origins of ITO EN, in 1964, was followed in 1966 by the establishment of the Frontier Tea Corporation, ITO EN's predecessor. At the time, tea was sold in a limited number of specialty stores, primarily by weight, and customers would have to visit these stores to buy their tea. To make tea more readily available for purchase, the company developed a method of packaging tea leaves in smaller quantities. Packaged tea made it possible to sell tea at supermarkets and grocery stores, eliminating customer complaints about the inconvenience of only being able to purchase tea at specialty stores. After the company name was changed to ITO EN in 1969, it became a driving influence on the tea industry with breakthrough methods for preserving the freshness of tea leaves. In 2001, ITO EN North America was founded to bring this idea to North America.