Cooper Tea, Third Street Chai form DrinkWorks

BOULDER – Cooper Tea Co. and Third Street Chai will merge under the name DrinkWorks while continuing to operate independently.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

New company products are expected to be announced later this year, and future growth could bring new hires, said Colleen Norwine, marketing director at Louisville-based Cooper Tea Co. In addition, John Simmons will join the Cooper Tea board of directors as part of the merger while remaining president of Boulder-based Third Street Chai.

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“We want everybody to understand that we value the unique identities of the brand portfolios, which is why they will operate independently,” Norwine said.

The two companies launched a co-branded line of iced tea concentrates in summer 2010, which was the most successful new specialty item in two Whole Foods Market regions, the companies said in a statement. The partnership in that venture led to the merger.

“It’s really exciting. Barry (Cooper, chief executive officer of Cooper Tea) and I have become really good friends. Our way of doing business is very complimentary,” Simmons said.

Cooper Tea makes organic and conventional iced tea and tea-related beverages including B.W. Cooper’s Iced Brew Tea-brand products – mostly for restaurants. Third Street Chai has a proprietary brewing process and a production facility that brews organic chai teas, yerba maté and lemonade beverage concentrates under the Third Street and Pixie Maté brands, mostly for grocery stores.

The two companies currently have no overlap in distribution and sales channels, meaning that the merger creates significant growth opportunities, Cooper said in the statement.