Lipton out to bag tea market in China
British company Lipton, which made its fortune selling black tea that originated in China, is challenging traditional Chinese habits by launching green and jasmine tea bags on the world's biggest market.
Wang Hui, of Unilever, owner of the Lipton brand, said yesterday that it had started selling the bags in China because it believed more people accepted the modern brewing method.
'Traditionally, Chinese like green tea in the form of leaves and believe that the quality of bags is not good,' she said.
'We feel that with our long history and experience in the industry, our brand is a guarantee of quality.' She declined to give production or sales figures but said Lipton had more than 50 per cent of the domestic market for black tea. It has been selling this form of tea, in bags and bottles ready for drinking, in China since 1992. In 1996, it set up the Guangdong Lipton Tea Leaf Company. While Lipton bought leaves for black tea from around the world, it would buy green tea leaves in China, Ms Wang said.
Most Chinese like to brew green tea slowly with leaves and boiled water. But an increasing number use bags because they are quick, convenient and suit the fast urban life, like instant noodles and coffee and lunch boxes.
'The launch of Lipton's green tea represents a challenge to the China market,' said a spokesman of the China Food Industry Association. 'The advantage of bags is that they cannot become dirty and can be preserved for a long time.