A LOCAL businesswoman is selling tea to China - after turning her love for a cuppa into a thriving enterprise.

Anita Clark, who runs Jenier World of Teas from Quarriers Village, has also netted two lucrative contracts with a total value of �1 million to supply tea to hotels and restaurants in Russia.

She is now creating seven new jobs at the company's Inverclyde base to cope with extra work from customers in other places like Australia, America and Asia.

Jenier already employs five full-time and five part-time staff who package and process orders for luxury and exotic teas which are imported to Inverclyde before being shipped all over the world.

The company's success even sees them sell to the home of the tea leaf - for Chinese tea-drinkers keen on trying blends from other parts of the globe.

Anita's team - which includes three highly skilled 'tea masters' working across the world - has also managed to sell tea from Darjeeling in India back to customers in the town.

The business started from humble beginnings in 2009, in the flat next to Anita's home, when she became interested in the health benefits of tea.

Anita, 49, said: "At the beginning it was me and one other person working part-time.

"We bought racks from Ikea, set up a website and started importing tea." Anita soon tapped into the wholesale market and with help from Business Gateway, she was able to expand her business, move to premises at Quarriers Village and build her website.

She said: "We soon found ourselves surrounded by tonnes of tea."

Anita, a former customs investigations officer and teapot collector, thinks the secret to her success is the high quality of the tea on sale - and her hard-working staff.

She told the Tele: "Jenier's World of Teas is a team effort - we would not be where we are today without our hard-working staff."

In January Anita went on a trade mission to Russia which resulted in her securing two �500,000 contracts.

But despite the company's international success, Anita is very proud of its local roots.

She said: "The Scottish brand is a very, very important part of Jenier.

"Scotland's history is deeply entwined with that of tea and its trade around the world.

"Throughout the centuries, we recognise Scottish pioneers - including, more recently, Robert Fortune and Sir Thomas Lipton - have helped make the commercialisation of tea a success."