Camellia for Foliage, Flowers, Fruit & Tea

l) Unilever is the world's biggest integrated tea company. Lipton is one of their largest brands and the world's most popular tea brand enjoyed by consumers everywhere. It is available in more than 100 countries and has a global turnover of 1.9 bn. Euros. The brand grew 5% in 2000. Top markets are the US, Italy, Japan, Egypt, France, Turkey, Arabia, Pakistan, Belgium and Poland.

Recent innovations include

o the Lipton Paint-the-World-Yellow campaign - a systematic drive into out-of-home channels o Pyramid tea bags which provide tea leaves with more room to move and therefore give a better tasting brew o Cold Brew teabags which brew in cold water in less than 5 minutes, providing fresh-brewed iced tea.

Archetype tea is a Unilever global core brand positioning, made up of a number of tea brands that are top sellers in different countries and which address the taste and emotions of specific local tea cultures. Brands included in the Archetype are PG Tips in the UK and Red Label in India. With a turnover in excess of 450,000,000 Euros, Archetype is the UK's most important foods brand.

In tea cultures, tea is part of the social fabric. Archetype brands "have the ability to unite the social tribe", understanding local consumers and the way they live. They represent the preferred taste of local markets and capture the emotions and values of local people. Lipton will be the first foreign brand to penetrate the green tea market in China.

Unilever culture and sentiment has undergone a dramatic shift in recent years. Staff are quite dynamic and global in outlook, "sustainability" is often heard from the Chairman. All of the environmental tasks ahead need a healthy business and economic viability must be core if sustainability is to be realised.

If Dilmah is the most innovative of the international tea marketing businesses, Unilever is undoubtedly the largest mainstream operator.

m) m) <a Whittard of Chelsea. This is a PLC with a high street presence. It has recently refocused on core activities of tea and coffee. In-store diversification into related wares were unsuccessful and internet-based retailing suffered a disappointing start. It is currently entering the liquid tea market in the USA through concessions within the Marshalls department stores.

2) Africa

Africa is a relative newcomer to tea production and is faced with the usual problems of growing in Africa. Kenya, host of the 2001 World Tea Convention, is a major

16 Next Page