Lipton

Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Unilever. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom before it was sold off to Argyll Foods, to allow the company to focus solely on tea. The company is named after its founder Thomas Lipton. The Lipton ready-to-drink beverages are sold by Pepsi Lipton International, a company jointly owned by Unilever and PepsiCo.

History

Thomas Lipton began travelling the world for new items to stock in his stores in the 1870s. During his travels, he came across tea plantations in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, and decided to purchase tea directly from there. The Lipton tea business was acquired by consumer goods company Unilever in a number of separate transactions, starting with the purchase of the United States and Canadian Lipton business in 1938 and completed in 1972 when Unilever bought the remaining parts of the world-wide Lipton business.

Products

Lipton's main pillar brands are Lipton Yellow Label and Lipton Iced Tea. Other product lines exist as well, like the Lipton pyramid range in Europe and North America, and Lipton Milk Tea in East Asia.

Marketing

Lipton's has a number of sponsorships. In 1952, the Lipton company sponsored "The Lipton Championships", which was a tennis tournament on the ATP Tour and WTA Tour. It was played in Key Biscayne, Florida. They also sponsored the television game show "What's My Line", and had product placements in the movies.

See also

• List of tea companies
• Unilever

References

Lipton Resources
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