Flavoured tea from Brooke Bond

Brooke Bond, the 130 year-old brand from Hindustan Lever Limited has set an ambitious target to become a Rs 1,000 crore-mega brand. As a step towards achieving this, the company has been expanding its portfolio of brands, especially teas.

The company launched flavoured tea, 'Brooke Bond Red Label Natural Care', in Bangalore market on Tuesday. Brooke Bond presently has four sub-brands -- Brooke Bond Taj Mahal, Brooke Bond Red Label, Brooke Bond 3 Roses and Brooke Bond Taaza, reaching out to over 500 million consumers in India.

Addressing a press conference after launching the product, Vineet Taneja - vice president, tea, HLL said that by launching Red Label Natural Care, we are offering tea with the natural flavours of ginger, ashwaghandha, mulethi (yashtimadhu), cardamom and tulsi.

With these flavours, we have created a new segment within beverages, for families seeking wellness in their daily lives, he added. Brooke Bond Red Label Natural Care was developed at the Brooke Bond Tea Excellence centre in Calcutta along with inputs from research centre in Bangalore.

The research teams worked on the five natural flavours and concluded that they worked well as a combination in this flavoured tea because they contain those that are familiar (cardamom, ginger and tulsi) as well as those not usually available in the kitchen in day-to-day life today (ashwagandha, mulethi), said Taneja.

These flavoured teas are priced to target daily users and will be available in two sizes "" a main pack of 250g for Rs 53, and a trial pack of 100g for Rs 20.

The company also plans to push its products through innovations. For example, innovative formats and packaging such as tea bags and vacuum packaging, he said.

Since the launch of Brooke Bond in 1869, it has been the single largest tea brand with a range of tea offerings appealing to the diverse preferences.

The Brooke Bond portfolio has over 30 per cent share in the packet tea category, with Brooke Bond Red Label being the single largest packet tea brand with over 10 per cent share.