An entrepreneurial adventure in the name of healthy food, a deep and genuine passion transformed into work. These are the characteristic traits of the story of Andrea Suglia and Beatriz Arjona Reverte, the two owners of the ‘Terza Luna’ tea, herbal tea and spice shop, one of the city’s commercial businesses that won the ‘d_Bari’ municipal tender. The shop, which has a physical location in the Apulian capital, has managed (also thanks to the support of the municipal tender) to expand its business through e-commerce activities, thus becoming a point of reference not only for lovers of Bari of natural drinks’, but also for users of the entire Old Continent.
The two young entrepreneurs have specific aptitudes that distinguish their professionalism: Andrea is responsible for identifying the best organic crops present in the world, to supply the shop with products with a high natural content. Beatriz, with a curriculum as a naturopath and nurse, provides clients with useful advice for clients who intend to support a correct diet. Over the years, a real community of enthusiasts has been created around their activity which now goes beyond city limits thanks to the power of the web.
“Terza Luna was born in 2011 in Bari – Andrea Suglia tells BariToday – a year earlier my partner Beatriz and I moved to Bari. I am originally from this area but at 18 I left to return to my 30s“.
Andrea and Beatriz have cultivated their interest in nature and the discovery of distant, uncontaminated lands, bringing back to Bari the deepest essences of their journeys. In the ‘Terza Luna’ shop they offer herbal teas and spices made with plant elements that come from different corners of the world. “Once we returned here we started thinking about what we would like to do, we both share a passion and fascination for travel and for plants and the vegetal world, of how they have always accompanied man on Earth and of their work – explains Suglia – Among all the beautiful plants that surround us there is one, tea, for which we feel a profound fascination, for its very long history rich in connections with geopolitics, but above all for its taste and its properties. As we grew with the shop we continued to train by traveling to Asia, the main producer of tea, getting to know the people behind the cultivation of this plant, a bit like what is done today with wine“.
The funds guaranteed by the d_Bari tender allowed the two young entrepreneurs to expand their field of action, strengthening the online sales network. “The resources from the dbari tender were invested in the renovation of our headquarters in Via Benedetto Petrone, what would be Piazza Chiurlia in Barivecchia, and then above all for the online activity – declares the owner of the Bari shop – Since 2015, in fact, we have had a website (terzaluna.com) that allows us to sell our products throughout Italy and recently throughout Europe. With the funds from the tender we have strengthened our position on the web by working on different fronts that intersect with each other: graphics, SEO, copy, improvements of the site in general“.
The municipal tender in support of local shops also aimed at the development of the local economic system: traders were required to commit to promoting free initiatives, services and events of a social, cultural and territorial nature to contribute to the progress of the Bari community. Terza Luna respected the pact with the city administration. “In exchange, as requested by the Municipality of Bari, we carried out a series of free initiatives focused on the wide world of products we sell: a course on resins, one on fermented products, a Guatemalan cocoa ceremony and more – underlines Andrea Suglia – The response from people was excellent, we have a network of followers who follow us in the various initiatives we carry out during the year, as soon as we published the events and the places were snapped up“.
