15 November 2024, 15:19
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Getty
Typhoo Tea is on the brink of administration following a decline in sales and an increase in debt and losses.
The 120-year-old brand is set to appoint administrators with chief executive Dave McNulty saying the company has filed a notice at court to provide “some breathing space to explore solutions”.
The firm has been trying to reverse its downward trends for some time but suffered a setback last year after trespassers damaged its former factory in Moreton, Merseyside.
Mr McNulty told the BBC the “notice of intent” is to appoint accountancy firm EY to handle the process but that it “does not mean we are in administration”.
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Alamy
The company’s most recent financial figures show their losses grew from £9.6m to £38m in the year to the end of September 2023 while sales dropped from £33.7m to £25.3m.
Meanwhile, the break-in at the Moreton plant, which was shut down last year, contributed to £24.1m worth of “exceptional costs”.
Typhoo said: “During August 2023, a group of organised trespassers broke into the Moreton site and occupied it for several days.”
The company said the trespassers caused “extensive damage” and made the site “inaccessible” while a lot of their products became unusable leading to unfulfilled orders.
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Typhoo Tea, whose headquarters is in Bristol, was founded in 1903 and is widely seen as one of the UK’s main tea brands, alongside the likes of PG Tips, Tetley’s and Yorkshire Tea.
The tea brand had been controlled by Indian conglomerate Apeejay Surrendra Group since 2005 until the group offloaded its shareholding to private equity firm Zetland Capital in 2021.
The threat of administration comes just two months after the company launched its “Fear Free Tea” campaign, which aimed to highlight abuse in the tea supply chain.
It said it does not guarantee that its own product is “fear free” but that it “invites the tea industry to question and assess whether their teas are free of sexual violence”.