Lipton
Lipton is one of the world's best-known and best-selling brand of both hot leaf and ready-to-drink tea.
It forms part of the Unilever portfolio which sells around 15.5% of the world's tea (in retail value terms), including other brands such as PG Tips (UK), Beseda (Russia) or Brooke Bond (India). Today, Lipton represents around 10% of the world market for tea (in retail value terms) with the key pillar brands:
- Lipton Yellow Label (since 1890), the emblematic Lipton brand for hot tea sold in 150 countries, and
- Lipton Ice Tea (since 1972), available in more than 60 countries through a global joint-venture with Pepsi Cola Inc.
Lipton was created at the end of the 19th century by Sir Thomas Lipton. Under the slogan “direct from the tea gardens to the tea pot,” this entrepreneurial businessman wanted to make tea a popular and approachable drink for everyone - with a high quality but reasonably priced.
Tea in the tropics
Over a century, Lipton became a leading tea brand. The company attributes this success to its strong focus on innovation and the expertise of its tea specialists- professionals in tea growing, tasting, buying, blending and R&D teams. Teas are selected from the many different plantations around the world, from well-known producing countries like India, Indonesia, Kenya and Sri Lanka. Lipton Yellow Label is blended from as many as 30 different teas in specialized tasting rooms in seven regional hubs scattered all over the world.
Tea is a valuable crop for farmers in many parts of the tropics. Sustainable agriculture is vital not only to maintain high-quality product supply in the long-term but also to protect and improve the natural environment and livelihoods of workers and local communities. Lipton's own plantations in East Africa — in Kenya (Kericho) and Tanzania (Mufindi) — and third party tea estates have been working together since 2002 to ensure compliance with the Unilever sustainable agriculture guidelines and the Ethical Tea Partnership criteria.