Like many successful family-owned businesses, Alabama-based Milo’s Tea Co. started small and was guided by a simple philosophy: Use quality, natural ingredients, listen to your customers and never sacrifice taste.
This approach has proven successful for the company since its beginnings as a restaurant founded by Milo and Bea Carlton in 1946. The company has grown in the ensuing decades and developed into one of the Southeast’s most iconic brands — all under the leadership of three generations of the same family.
The most recent sign of that growth and success came earlier this year with the announcement of the company’s fourth production facility in the country and its first in South Carolina.
The commitment to quality continues under the leadership of the current CEO, Tricia Wallwork, the granddaughter of the company’s founders. With her at the helm, Milo’s has grown and is now a certified woman-owned business.
As a working wife and mother, she said she feels a responsibility not only to carry on her family’s legacy, but to honor the loyalty of the company’s employees and customers who have helped make Milo’s Tea Co. a success.
“As a proud third-generation CEO, I have a big responsibility, not only to my family but to the associates I get to work alongside every day, the retail customers we partner with and the loyal fans we serve,” Wallwork said.
This commitment to employees and customers is at the heart of the company’s business model and was an important consideration in selecting the location for Milo’s latest production facility. The company also hauled tanker trucks of water from the Woodruff-Roebuck Water District, which will supply the company’s facility in Spartanburg County, back to Alabama to ensure it met the company’s standards of quality and taste.
“We picked this spot in South Carolina, sure, for its great tasting water, but also because it’s the optimal location to serve our customers up and down the East Coast,” Wallwork said. “We also immediately felt at home in the Spartanburg area as we received a warm welcome from community partners.”
The company is investing $130 million to build a 110,000-square-foot plant at Park 290 at the intersection of state Highway 290 and U.S. Highway 221 in Moore.
The move is expected to create more than 100 new jobs and be operational by the end of 2024.
For more information about Milo’s Tea Co., visit drinkmilos.com.
