LOCAL PADDO AUTUMN 2021

Healing The Healer

Out of a devastating business breakdown, a new local brand has emerged, writes Lara Picone

Anthia Koullouros doesn’t want to hear that business isn’t personal. For the long-time Paddington naturopath and organic tea crafter, business is, in fact, acutely personal.

“I create teas, tisanes and herbal remedies and provide services, which are personal. I'm in the business of helping people heal,” she says.

Many locals have sought Koullouros’s naturopathic advice on their personal path to health, which she dispenses with genuine empathy from her Glenmore Rd clinic. And many more have purchased her carefully considered teas under the label she started and nurtured more than 16 years, Ovvio Organic Teas.

Yet, oftentimes, the healer finds they are the one in need of a remedy.

As a practising naturopath with 26 years of clinical experience and as the founder of a popular tea brand, no one could accuse Koullouros of not being a savvy operator. However, as for many others, 2020 proved the year that took her to the edge professionally and, therefore, personally.

But unlike many, Koullouros’s struggle wasn’t entirely COVID-induced. Rather, a business partnership that didn’t align as she had hoped saw her walk away from Ovvio Organic Teas, divorcing herself from the brand and starting out again under her own name.

The crisis came when Koullouros moved to scale up the small business to take the brand to a bigger audience. But things did not turn out as she imagined when entering the partnership.

“I needed capital and I needed operating support,” she says.

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