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Cinnamon, vanilla and berry flavoured instant tea, fortified water and lemon flavoured glucose-based drink are some of the innovations that Tata Global Beverage is focusing on. “Chai latte”, an instant flavoured tea from the Tetley brand, has been launched in Australia last fiscal and will be taken to other tea drinking countries, including India, this year.
Started as a tea company, Tata Global Beverage has moved on to become a major beverage giant on the back of various innovations.
“We are no more a tea company. We want to be a market leader as a beverage company with a focus on innovations. The Chai Latte is an instant indulgence drink, and is doing extremely well in Australia. We are looking at launching the same in other geographies as well. After the launch of Chai Latte, the Australian market has seen a good double digit growth,” said Mr Harish Bhat, the new CEO and Managing Director of Tata Gobal. He further added that the UK black tea market continues to be weak with industry volumes down 3.6 per cent in F1Q13, while the demand for flavoured tea has gone up.
As the new CEO, Mr Bhat’s focus will be to strongly grow the existing brands particularly in Tata Tea and Tetley, with a better reach at distribution. Depending on the movement of commodity prices, a change in price would be undertaken.
Mr Bhat said that the water business would witness tremendous growth as the company will launch fortified water in pouches during the next 12-16 months. The water will have extra zinc, iron and calcium. Besides, Tata Gluco Plus is another glucose drink to be launched as a substitute for soft drinks.
Tata Global’s consolidated revenue in the first quarter of FY13 has gone up by 18 per cent to Rs 1,725 crore, with a 13 per cent jump in net profit. With regards to prices, Mr Bhat said that tea prices were likely to firm up due to a rise in global demand and not due to the monsoon. He said so far, the tea growing areas have received fair rainfall.
The company owns brands such as Tata Tea and Tetley in the tea segment, Eight O’Clock for coffee, Himalayan and Tata Water Plus in water segment. The company has also launched a fruit-based energy drink called Gluco Plus in the last quarter. Currently, it is piloting both Water Plus and Gluco Plus in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra.
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