Tata Consumer Products is an Indian
fast-moving consumer goods
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), also known as consumer packaged goods (CPG), are products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable household goods such as packaged foods, beverages, toiletries, cand ...
company and a part of the
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...
. Its registered office is located in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
while its corporate headquarters is in
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. It is the world's second-largest manufacturer and distributor of
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...
and a major producer of
coffee.
Formerly known as Tata Global Beverages Limited (TGBL), Tata Consumer Products was formed when the consumer products business of
Tata Chemicals
Tata Chemicals Limited is an Indian global company with interests in chemicals, crop protection and specialty chemistry products headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company is one of the largest chemical companies in India with operations in In ...
merged with Tata Global Beverages in February 2020. The company now operates in the food and beverages industry, with ~56% of their revenue coming from India while the rest is from their international businesses. After the merger, the company controls Indian and international brands like
Tata Salt
Tata Salt was launched in 1983 by Tata Chemicals as India's first packaged iodised salt brand.
The brand is now the biggest packaged salt brand in India, with a market share of 17%.
The Indian salt market
As of June, 2019, more than 90 thousan ...
,
Tata Tea
Tata Consumer Products is an Indian fast-moving consumer goods company and a part of the Tata Group. Its registered office is located in Kolkata while its corporate headquarters is in Mumbai. It is the world's second-largest manufacturer and d ...
,
Tetley
Tetley is an English beverage manufacturer founded in 1837 in Yorkshire. It is the largest tea company in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the second largest in the United States by volume.
Since 2000, Tetley has been a wholly owned subsidiar ...
,
Eight O'Clock Coffee
Eight O'Clock Coffee is an American brand of coffee products currently manufactured by the Eight O'Clock Coffee Company, a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products, which is headquartered in Mumbai, India; its coffee production plant is in Landover, ...
,
Good Earth Tea
Good Earth Tea is a tea and herbal tea company. Founded in 1972 under the name Fmali Herb Company and based in Santa Cruz, California, it was one of the first American herbal tea companies during the early 1970s. In the late 1970s, it began to dev ...
, Tata Sampann and
Tata Starbucks
Tata Starbucks Private Limited, formerly known as Tata Starbucks Limited, is a 50:50 joint venture company, owned by Tata Consumer Products and Starbucks Corporation, that owns and operates Starbucks outlets in India. The outlets are branded '' ...
.
Tata Tea is the biggest-selling tea brand in India.
Tetley
Tetley is an English beverage manufacturer founded in 1837 in Yorkshire. It is the largest tea company in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the second largest in the United States by volume.
Since 2000, Tetley has been a wholly owned subsidiar ...
is the biggest-selling tea brand in Canada and the second-biggest-selling in the United Kingdom and the United States.
History
1980 to 1990
In the early 1980s, the tea industry in India was experiencing rising input and labour costs and dwindling margins as well as high taxes. India was facing competition on the world market not just from China, but also from other countries entering the business.
In 1983, Tata Tea bought the stake belonging to the
James Finlay
James Finlay was a Scotland international rugby union player.Bath, p136
Rugby Union career
Amateur career
Finlay played for .
Provincial career
Finlay was capped for Edinburgh District, playing in the very first inter-city match in 187 ...
group to form the individual entity Tata Tea. In the same year, the company decided to move from the commodities business to consumer branding. The first brand Tata Tea was introduced. This was followed by other brands like
Kannan Devan, Agni, Gemini and Chakra Gold. In spite of being the largest market in the world, the concept of branded tea took time to be accepted.
In 1987, Tata Tea set up a fully owned subsidiary, Tata Tea Inc., in United States.
1990 to 2000
In the 1990s, Tata Tea decided to take its brands into the global markets. It formed an export joint venture with
Britain's Tetley Tea in 1992. Other new enterprises included a majority interest in Consolidated Coffee Ltd. (Tata Coffee Ltd.) and a joint venture to manage agricultural estates in Sri Lanka. Tata Tea Inc. in United States processed and marketed instant tea from its facility in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, based on sourcing of instant tea products out of
Munnar and
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
. In 1993, they entered into a joint venture with
Allied Lyons PLC in UK to form Estate Tata Tetley.
In the mid-1990s, Tata Tea attempted to buy Tetley and the Lankan JVC acquired 51% shareholding in
Watawala Plantations Ltd.
In 1997 the company was embroiled in a major scandal known as the "
Tata Tapes controversy" which related to funds the company provided to the outlawed
United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), an armed-struggle group operating in
Assam.
By 1999, Tata Tea's brands had a combined market share of 25% in India. The company had 74 tea gardens and was producing 6.2
crore
A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...
kilograms of tea a year, two-thirds of it packaged and branded. Towards the end of the year, the tea business was hit by a drought in much of India. In addition, Russia, once the largest buyer of Indian tea, temporarily withdrew from the market.
2000 to 2010
![Tata and tetley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Tata_and_tetley.jpg)
An important step for Tata Tea was the acquisition of the
Tetley Group (based in United Kingdom) in 2000. It was a £271 million ($432 million) leveraged buyout. Tata Tea reportedly outbid the American conglomerate
Sara Lee
Sara may refer to:
Arts, media and entertainment Film and television
* Sara (1992 film), ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui
* Sara (1997 film), ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda
* Sara (2010 ...
in what was described, at the time, as the largest takeover of a foreign company by an Indian company. At the time, Tetley was the world's second-largest tea company after
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
's
Brooke Bond-
Lipton
Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...
and had an annual turnover of £300 million. It was the market leader in Britain and Canada and a popular brand in United States,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
.
Established in 1837, Tetley was the first
British tea company to introduce the tea bag to UK in 1953. The tea bag was followed by the first round tea bag in 1989 and the 'no drip, no mess'
drawstring bag in 1997. Tetley now contributes for around two-thirds of the total turnover of Tata Tea.
From 2005, Tata Tea began a restructuring exercise to divest direct ownership of plantations in India, a process facilitated by subsidised loans from the World Bank's
International Finance Corporation.
In 2006, Tata Tea acquired
Eight O'Clock Coffee
Eight O'Clock Coffee is an American brand of coffee products currently manufactured by the Eight O'Clock Coffee Company, a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products, which is headquartered in Mumbai, India; its coffee production plant is in Landover, ...
, a U.S.-based coffee producer from Gryphon Investors for $220m; before being sold to Gryphon, the Eight O'Clock Coffee brand was originally owned by
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company from its beginnings in 1859 to 2003.
In 2007, Tata Tea launched the campaign
Jaago Re!
Tata Tea ''Jaago Re'' or ''JaagoRe'' is a cause marketing initiative launched in India by Tata Tea, owned by Tata Global Beverages Limited. The campaign, introduced in 2008, works with NGOs and other non-profit organization to raise awareness f ...
to awaken youth to social issues. The campaign was extended into 2008. In 2009, their campaign revolve around the issue of corruption with a new adline 'Ab Se Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru'.
The international
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
IUF
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is a global union federation of trade unions with members in a variety of industries, many of which relate to food processi ...
criticized the company in 2009 for not allowing statutory
maternity leave to pregnant
tea pluckers, and for
locking out 1,000 workers on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
for so long that the local government began distributing food coupons for emergency rations to workers and their families. In May 2010, a crop sprayer died of suspected poisoning on a Tata estate in
Assam, leading to protests at which two more workers were shot dead by riot police.
2010 to 2019
On 30 January 2012, Tata Consumer Products Limited and
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...
announced the creation of a 50:50 joint venture called
Tata Starbucks
Tata Starbucks Private Limited, formerly known as Tata Starbucks Limited, is a 50:50 joint venture company, owned by Tata Consumer Products and Starbucks Corporation, that owns and operates Starbucks outlets in India. The outlets are branded '' ...
Limited, which will own and operate Starbucks outlets branded as ''Starbucks Coffee "A Tata Alliance"'' in India. The stores started operating in 2012, launching initially in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
and
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. The coffee shops source coffee beans from
Tata Coffee
Tata Coffee is an Indian company that produces coffee, tea, pepper and related products. It is a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products, and is part of the Tata Group. Tata Coffee owns 19 coffee estates in South India, spread across the districts ...
, a subsidiary company of Tata Consumer Products Limited.
2019 to present
On May 15, 2019,
Tata Chemicals Limited
Tata Chemicals Limited is an Indian global company with interests in chemicals, crop protection and specialty chemistry products headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company is one of the largest chemical companies in India with operations in In ...
(TCL) announced the de-merger of the Consumer Products Business of TCL and into TGBL through a National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) approved scheme of arrangement (“Scheme”) to become Tata Consumer. In the beverages business, Tata Consumer brands include Tata Tea, Tetley, Vitax, Eight O’Clock Coffee, Himalayan Natural Mineral Water, Grand Coffee and Joekels. In the food segment, the brands include
Tata Salt
Tata Salt was launched in 1983 by Tata Chemicals as India's first packaged iodised salt brand.
The brand is now the biggest packaged salt brand in India, with a market share of 17%.
The Indian salt market
As of June, 2019, more than 90 thousan ...
and Tata Sampann.
Tata Global Beverages Limited (TGBL) and Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) announced that the Scheme of Arrangement between TGBL and TCL regarding the Consumer Products Business of TCL is now operational, effective from 7 February 2020. Following this, TGBL has been renamed Tata Consumer Products Limited. Tata Consumer Products combines the food and beverages brands, which include Tata Salt, Tata Tea, Tata Sampann, Tetley, Soulfull and Himalayan mineral water, under a single umbrella.
Tata Consumer Products acquired complete control of Tata SmartFoodz Limited from Tata Industries Limited for on 12 November 2021.
On 1 May 2022, Tata Consumer Products announced that
Tata Coffee
Tata Coffee is an Indian company that produces coffee, tea, pepper and related products. It is a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products, and is part of the Tata Group. Tata Coffee owns 19 coffee estates in South India, spread across the districts ...
would merge with itself as part of a reorganization plan. The company stated that the merger was expected to be completed in late 2023, with shareholders of Tata Coffee receiving 3 shares in Tata Consumer Products for every 10 shares of Tata Coffee. In July 2022, Tata Consumer Products launched premuim honey products and flavoured preserves, under the company's Himalayan brand name. Also in July 2022, the company launched
plant-based meat
A meat alternative or meat substitute (also called plant-based meat or fake meat, sometimes pejoratively) is a food product made from vegetarian or vegan ingredients, eaten as a replacement for meat. Meat alternatives typically approximate qua ...
products under the brand name, Tata Simply Better.
Operations
![TataTea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/TataTea.JPG)
The company was renamed as Tata Global Beverages (now Tata Consumer Products Limited) to include the range of health and nutritional beverages it wants to enter into. Via subsidiary companies, Tata Consumer Products Limited manufactures 7
crore
A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...
kilograms of tea in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, controls 54 tea estates, ten tea blending and packaging factories and employs around 59,000 people. The company owns 51 tea estates in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, especially in
Assam,
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
in eastern India and
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
in the south. The company is the largest manufacturer of
Assam tea
Assam tea is a black tea named after the region of its production, Assam, India. It is manufactured specifically from the plant ''Camellia sinensis'' var. ''assamica'' (Masters). The Assam tea plant is indigenous to Assam—initial efforts to plan ...
and
Darjeeling tea and the second-largest manufacturer of
Ceylon tea
Ceylon tea is both the brand of tea which is produced in Sri Lanka and a historic term describing tea from that land. Ceylon tea has been described as not only a geographical descriptor but also a pillar of Sri Lankan culture, heritage and ident ...
.
Set up in 1964 as a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
with
UK based James Finlay and Company to develop value-added tea, Tata Consumer Products Limited has now product and brand presence in 50 countries. It is one of India's first
multinational companies. The operations of Tata Consumer Products Limited and its subsidiaries focus on branded product offerings in tea, but with a significant presence in plantation activity in India and Sri Lanka.
The consolidated worldwide branded tea business of Tata Consumer Products Limited contributes to around 86% of its consolidated turnover with the remaining 14 per cent coming from bulk tea,
coffee and investment income. With an area of approximately under tea cultivation, Tata Consumer Products Limited produces around 30 million kg of
black tea annually. Instant tea is used for light density 100% teas, iced tea mixes and in the preparation of ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages.
Tata Consumer Products Limited owns five brands in India: Tata Tea, Tetley,
Kannan Devan, Chakra Gold, and Gemini. The company has a 100% export-oriented unit (KOSHER and HACCP certified) manufacturing
instant tea
Instant tea is a powder in which water is added, in order to reconstitute it into a cup of tea. The earliest form of instant tea was developed in the United Kingdom in 1885. A patent was granted for a paste made of concentrated tea extract, sug ...
in
Munnar,
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, which is the largest such facility outside United States. Tata Consumer Products Limited has subsidiaries in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
,
The United States of America,
Czechia and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Marketing strategy
In spite of a global presence, the brands are distributed differently depending on the location. As Tata tea is far better known in India and a powerful brand there, it is pushed on this market and countries with a large Indian population. Therefore, Tetley is the company's global face and the largest markets focus on the Tetley brand. Where both brands co-exist in one market, Tetley is positioned as the premium tea.
Social initiatives
Jaago Re!
Tata Global Beverages worked with
Janaagraha
Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (www.janaagraha.org) is a non-profit trust, working towards the mission of transforming the quality of life in India’s cities and towns. Founded in 2001 by Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati Ramanathan, ...
on a
voter registration drive, with the campaign name "''Jaago Re!''" ("Wake Up!"). Following this, the company moved the campaign on to opposing
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
. The Jaago Re! website encourages discussion on this and other social issues.
Scholarships
Tata Global Beverages awarded the Tata Global Beverages Re-imagination Scholarships on 17 March 2013 to eight students from the 'Urban Scholars' program at
Brunel University in London. The participating students were required to write an essay based on the following topic "A hot cup of tea on a cold morning, sharing a joke over a cup of coffee, a sip of cool water after a long trek. Beverages are part of our everyday life and yet they also sprinkle some magic on it—moments of reflection, sharing, inspiration and laughter...moments which take us away from the ordinary. What do you think makes a magical beverage moment?"
Criticism
In January 2014, Tata Consumer Products Limited and International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is part of
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
were criticized for poor working conditions, low wages, and gross human rights violations in a report released by Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School. The report alleges Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL) that is partly owned by Tata Tea and IFC is in violation of many of provisions of Indian Plantation Labor Act (PLA) on its tea plantations in Assam and West Bengal.
In March 2014 a documentary on The Guardian news web site claims that Tata Global Beverages is underpaying the minimum Indian wage at an Assam tea plantation that Tata co-owns with Tetley and other major tea producers.
In October 2015, a movement of 6,000 female labourers calling themselves "Pempilai Orumai", or women's unity laid siege to the Munnar tea estates, one of Kerala's most popular tourist destinations and owned subsidiary of Tata Tea's plantation in Kerala. Trade and tourism were brought to a near standstill but, after nine days of protest and marathon negotiations overseen by the chief minister of the state, it gave in.
The spark that ignited the protest was a decision to cut the 20% bonus paid to tea pickers, but its roots go much deeper than that. "Part of the women's complaint is that they live in one-bed huts without toilets and other basic amenities and, while they earn significantly more than the tea workers in Assam, they say the (£2.30) they are paid for a day's work is half what a daily wage laborer in Kerala would get."
Shareholding pattern
The maximum stake is being held with Indian promoters of the business i.e., Tata Group with a percentage share of 34.66%. Mutual funds hold a 14.86% share and FPIs hold a 17.05% stake in the company. Non-institutional individuals hold a 20.38% share in the company.
See also
*
History of tea in India
India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, although over 70 per cent of its tea is consumed within India itself. A number of renowned teas, such as Assam and Darjeeling, also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has gro ...
*
Tetley
Tetley is an English beverage manufacturer founded in 1837 in Yorkshire. It is the largest tea company in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the second largest in the United States by volume.
Since 2000, Tetley has been a wholly owned subsidiar ...
*
Munnar Tea Museum
The KDHP Tea Museum is an industry and history museum situated in Munnar, a town in the Idukki district of Kerala in South India. Tata Tea Museum is its official name, but it's also known as Nalluthanni Estate where it is located, or Kannan Devan ...
*
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continent ...
References
External links
*
{{Nifty 200 companies
Tata Sons subsidiaries
Drink companies of India
Manufacturing companies based in Kolkata
Indian companies established in 1964
Indian brands
Food and drink companies established in 1964
Tea companies of India
Tata Consumer Products
1964 establishments in West Bengal
Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange