Lipton launches lavish range of flavoured teas

Thursday, 27 September 2012 04:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Lipton Tea has reached another milestone in Sri Lanka with their latest range of flavoured tea being added to the product portfolio.

The company launched three new black tea flavours which include – Earl Grey, Lemon and English Breakfast. Also the re-launch of new packaging and communication of the popular Lipton Clear Green variants – Pure Mint, Jasmine and Citrus were also unveiled at an event held at Cinnamon Lakeside.

The latest Lipton tea range has been introduced into the local market after much research and development was conducted on Sri Lankan preferences. Unilever Category Leader – Beverages Manindri Bandaranayke said, “For over a century, Lipton has given the best taste to tea lovers around the globe maintaining its position as world’s number one tea. Through the introduction of the new tea variants and the re-launch of Clear Green we hope to give Sri Lankans a unique experience and a newer taste of tea.”

The latest launch offers a finer and fresher brew to the local tea consumer; Lipton encourages tea lovers to engage in ‘positive drinking’ through its finest tea range. Since the acquisition of Lipton International by Unilever in 1971, Lipton has grown into becoming the largest tea brand in the world. At present, Unilever purchases ove12% of the world’s black tea production from over 3,000 tea estates.

Lipton currently accounts for 8-10% of Unilever Sri Lanka turnover with the Western and North-Western provinces have proven to be areas of highest sales, where the Southern and Northern provinces have show a greater demand for unbranded tea.

With high competition in the demand for branded and unbranded tea, according to Lipton researchers there is a change in demand shifting in favour of branded tea.

“Consumption is constant with steady growth however around the world, the trend is showing that consumers domestic and foreign want branded tea as it equates to high levels of quality and taste,” Unilever Sri Lanka Director Marketing Asanga Ranasinghe confidently noted.

12-15 million kg’s of Ceylon tea are exported annually and Unilever Sri lanka Head of Tea Division Avi De Silva shared how he believes that Sri Lanka is slowly moving towards becoming a coffee culture especially within the youth.

“The taste and requirements of the youth market is what, we at Unilever are trying to correctly predict. A lot of money is invested into innovation and renovation and we believe that the re-branding and new product range will help solidify our market position.”

Unilever Sri Lanka enjoys a leadership position in the tea industry, a first in Soy based beverages that are currently being trialled in India and their brand of coffee called Bru.