Unilever to retain tea business in India, Indonesia after portfolio review

FMCG major Unilever on Thursday said it will retain its tea business in India and Indonesia, months after it announced a global review of its portfolio in January this year.

The tea business for other markets would be separated into a different unit.

In January, Unilever had announced a strategic review of the global tea business, which includes leading brands such as Lipton, Brooke Bond and PG Tips.

"This review has assessed a full range of options. We will retain the tea businesses in India and Indonesia and the partnership interests in the ready-to-drink tea joint ventures," Unilever said.

The FMCG major further said that "the balance of Unilever's tea brands and geographies and all tea estates have an exciting future, and this potential can best be achieved as a separate entity. A process will now begin to implement the separation, which is expected to conclude by the end of 2021".

The tea business that will be separated generated revenues of 2 billion Euro in 2019.

In India, Unilever operates through its subsidiary Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), which operates in the tea segment with its two leading brands Lipton and Brooke Bond.

Under Brooke Bond portfolio, it has popular brands as Taj Mahal, 3 Roses, Red Label and Taaza.

HUL's tea business comes under food and refreshment segment.

The company has declared its result for the April-June quarter on Tuesday, in which HUL's food and refreshment segment reported an increase of 33.23 per cent to Rs 2,598 crore.

"Riding on the 'in-home, wellness and immunity' trends, foods, tea and coffee delivered strong performance with double-digit growths," HUL had said. Besides HUL has also a presence in the coffee segment through its Bru brand.

Unilever on Thursday announced results for the first half of 2020, in which it reported a 0.1 per cent decline of sales. In the developed markets, sales were up 2.4 per cent, while it was down 1.9 per cent in the emerging markets.

The company has reported a turnover of 25.7 billion Euros, which was down 1.6 per cent from the corresponding period of 2019.