Lipton Tea exports grow year-on-year

Unilever has achieved a year-on-year growth in Lipton Tea exports said Unilever Sri Lanka Ltd., Category Leader - Beverages, Manindri Bandaranayake.

She was speaking at a ceremony to launch a range of Lipton Tea on Tuesday.

She said that Unilever exports over 80 percent of Lipton Tea in tea bags and added that it is a leading global brand sold in over 110 countries.

Pic: Susantha Wijeyagunasekera

"We export around 75 percent of our tea to some of the major tea consuming countries. Our tea exports are not affected by the current crisis in the Middle East," Bandaranayake said.

Tea consumption among youth has declined according to research conducted by Unilever. A strong coffee culture is brewing in the country and carbonated beverages are becoming popular among youth, Bandaranayake said.

Tea is one of the best health beverages in the world consumed in a large number of countries. Sri Lanka is one of the largest tea consuming countries.

Unilever is constructing a state-of-the-art tea manufacturing factory in Horana. "We hope to commence operations soon," an official said.

He said that the North and the East are potential markets for our brands and added that the company will penetrate into all segments to popularise the brands.

Unilever Sri Lanka Director Marketing, Asanga Ranasinghe said that the company believes in sustainable tea agriculture and builds the brand on those values.

"Innovation is the key to our success. We invest large amounts of money on research and brand building which have helped us be ahead of many global brands," he said.

Today Lipton is synonymous with tea. In 1890, a successful businessman, Sir Thomas Lipton launched the Thomas J Lipton Company to make tea accessible at affordable prices with guaranteed quality.

"To this day, we remain true to Sir Thomas' aim to make Lipton Teas available to people throughout the world," a Unilever official said.

Lipton launched three new black tea flavours which comprise Earl's Grey tea, Lemon and English Breakfast tea. The new packaging and labelling of Lipton Clear Green variants such as pure, mint, jasmine and citrus were unveiled at the ceremony.

LF