in 2008, david segal and his cousin herschel segal founded davidstea's headquarters and main offices in montreal, but opened its first store on queen street in toronto the same year, followed by its first montreal store, in 2009. in 2010, the company had stores located across canada, opening its 50th store in waterloo, ontario in 2011 and, that november, opened its first store outside of canada, in new york city. a growing boutique tea industry expanded the company, by 2012, to more than 75 stores across north america, with over 150 varieties of tea.