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One of the UK’s best-known tea brands, Typhoo Tea, has filed a notice at court to “appoint accountancy firm EY to handle the process” of appointing an administrator due to poor sales, widening losses, and rising debts. The notice effectively provides the company with some breathing space to explore solutions as it battles a tough economic climate. The company had been trying to turn itself around but took a knock last year when trespassers damaged its former factory in Moreton, Merseyside. Chief Executive Dave McNulty did not comment further on the notice of intent, noting that it was an ongoing confidential process.
Typhoo Tea has been in business for 120 years and is known to be one of the UK’s main tea brands, alongside popular names such as PG Tips, Tetley’s, and Yorkshire Tea. The company’s losses rose from £9.6m to £38m in 2023, compared to sales of £33.7m and £25.3m, respectively. However, this is not all; the 2023 financial report also revealed “exceptional costs” of £24.1m, some of which relates to the break-in that occurred at the company’s Moreton plant last year. The plant was subsequently shut down and rendered inaccessible by trespassers who caused significant damage and made it impossible for Typhoo to fulfil some of its customers’ orders.
Owned by private equity firm Zetland Capital, Typhoo Tea had been under the Indian conglomerate Apeejay Surrendra Group’s control, which bought the company from Premier Foods in 2005 and later offloaded its shareholding to Zetland in 2021. The current threat of administration comes just two months after Typhoo revamped its brand with a campaign to raise awareness of the abuse and violence prevalent in the tea supply chain.
Typhoo’s Fear Free Tea campaign stresses the need to address the issue of sexual violence in tea plantations, following a 2023 BBC Panorama documentary, “Sex for Work: The True Cost of our Tea,” which found that three out of four women interviewed at tea plantations had been sexually abused. That said, the brand does not guarantee that its own products are “fear-free” but invites the whole tea industry to assess whether their teas are free of sexual violence
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