London, Oct. 17, 2005
Ramesh Chopra
Karan Paul, nephew of NRI industrialist Lord Swraj
Paul, chairman of Apeejay bought a leading tea
brand, Typhoo of Britain for 80 million pounds. Apeejay
produces close to 25 million kilograms of tea a year
and has a plantation area of 30,000 acres supplying
many of the world’s major tea brands. These include
the quintessentially English Typhoo, which will remain
on supermarket shelves unchanged. It ,employs more
than 40,000 people.
Typhoo is a big brand popular in UK and it's number
three in the market. Typhoo will be the second British
tea brand sold into Indian hands after Tata Tea paid
£271 million for Tetley Group in 2000. It will
also take on Typhoo's tea blending and packing facility
which employs 250 people at Moreton, on the Wirral
Tea is nation’s most popular drink and £1.3
billion business. Tea comes from the leaves of a tree
called Camellia sinensis. It can grow over 30ft tall
but is cut short for easier harvesting. Darjeeling
is called the champagne of teas and is grown in the
Himalayas.
Ireland has the highest per capita tea consumption
in the world at four cups per person per day. In Britain
the figure is just under three
