How a 19th-century grocer turned a luxury commodity into a global staple
In the 1870s, tea was a rare, expensive luxury. Then came Sir Thomas Lipton. By bypassing traditional middlemen and sourcing directly from gardens in Ceylon, he transformed the tea market, creating a retail empire that eventually expanded into thousands of shops and a global brand.
The Lipton legacy began in 1871 when Sir Thomas Lipton, a Glasgow native, used his small savings to open a grocery shop in the United Kingdom. By the 1880s, his business had expanded to over 200 stores. Lipton's strategy for tea was revolutionary: he purchased tea gardens in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1890, allowing him to package and ship tea at a low cost. Using the slogan "Direct from the tea gardens to the teapot," he sold tea in various sizes, from quarter-pound packets to one-pound bags. This efficiency helped tea sales in the late 1870s jump from £40 million to approximately £80 million by the mid-1880s.
The brand's corporate history is a complex web of mergers and acquisitions. In 1929, Lipton's grocery business merged with several other companies, including Maypole Dairy Company and Templetons, to form a group that eventually traded as Allied Suppliers. The tea business itself was acquired by Unilever through several transactions, beginning with the purchase of the North American business in 1938. In a notable move in 1972, Unilever sold its shares in the retail arm, Allied Supplies, to Cavenham Foods, only to later repurchase the tea business for £18.5 million.
Today, the brand is split. Lipton Teas and Infusions, owned by CVC Capital Partners since 2022, manages the tea brand globally, though it does not market Lipton tea in the UK. Meanwhile, Unilever and PepsiCo maintain a joint venture for ready-to-drink beverages like Lipton Iced Tea. The brand's reach is vast, with products available in over 150 countries, though the company notably withdrew from the Russian market in August 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.
Source: Lipton
