In the packed tea segment, Tata Tea, world’s second largest tea operation, has outplaced Hindustan Unilever to attain the top place in terms of sales volume during June 2007.
Tata Tea’s share stand at 19.2% in June as compared to 18.6% of HUL. HUL has been a leader in the Indian organised tea market with successful brands such as Taj Mahal, Brooke Bond and Lipton.
Tata Tea had been positioning its offering different and building a wider distribution network. It has witnessed strong growth in Tata Tea Premium and Tata Tea Gold and repositioned its Agni brand.
It has also forayed into new segments by launching Tata Tea Life with natural herbal extracts, Tetley Green Tea and a special long leaf single origin teas in the premium segment.
In 2002, HUL’s (formerly HLL) market share was 26.1% while that of Tata Tea was 16.3%. But the gap has been narrowing down since then and for the first time in June HUL lost its pole position to Tata Tea.