Flavoured products from Tata Tea
The Hindu — March 13, 2007

With an aim to capture the top slot in the Rs 6,000 crore organised tea market in India, Tata Tea on Monday announced its foray into the health and wellness segment of tea by launching new flavoured products, 'Tata Tea Life'.

Company executive director, Sangeeta Talwar, told media persons that the company's new product would not be positioned as a niche product but would be marketed as a mainstream one with an additional taste of herbs and spices known to provide overall health and wellness.

"We have been achieving double-digit growth while the industry is growing only at 3.3 per cent. We aim to be the number one in the Indian market," Tata Tea managing director, P T Siganporia, said on the occasion of the launch.

At present, the organised tea market in India is led by Hindustan Lever with about 19 per cent market share, closely followed by Tata Tea with 18 per cent.

"We are not yet there but very close to…by next year we should be able to be the number one," he said, adding that in the current fiscal, they were already significantly ahead of its target, but did not give out the figures.

In the third quarter ended December 2006, the company reported profit after tax of Rs 94 crore against Rs 61 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year, up 54 per cent. Its total income during the quarter stood at Rs 299 crore against Rs 282 crore.