Tata Tea to foray into US market

Tata Tea has started retailing its flagship brand Tata Tea in the US, in a bid to cater to the needs of the Indian diaspora.

Percy Siganporia, deputy managing director, said the company has appointed a distributor in the US and the brand is being retailed through this channel.

The company had also stepped up its marketing in the Middle East. Siganporia said, while Tata Tea had a presence in the Middle East, the company was now developing growth plans for its brands -- Tata Tea and Kanan Devan.

Tata Tea had also plans of launching the brand in the UK. But, Siganporia said, the company will have to chart out a different strategy for the UK as Tetley was a very strong brand in the UK, compared with the US.

Meanwhile, the brand "Tetley" had been launched in Russia. At present, the packaging is being done out of the company's Cochin facility under Tata Tetley.

However, Siganporia said, once volumes picked up the company would consider the option of establishing another packaging unit in Russia or the around the region.

Tata Tetley was now handling production for a variety of Tata Tea and Tetley markets including Poland, Khazakhstan, the Middle East and Russia.

Formerly a factory with 11 tea bag packing machines, serving five markets, Tata Tetley now had 35 machines, packing both black and flavoured string and tag, round, square, drawstring tea bags, packet tea and bulk tea for 11 different markets.

Tata Tea spruced up the Tata Tetley facility after consolidation of Tetley operations across the globe. The company moved from a wholly owned to different supply models.

The company now has only one wholly owned production facility at Eaglescliffe. The other factories were joint ventures -- Marietta in the US, Dhaka in Bangladesh.

The company had shifted to contract packers worldwide, as in Sweden, Australia and in the UK (for T of Life, string and tag bags and packet tea).