Unilever's Best Beverage Brand: Lipton

When it comes to brands of tea, Lipton is considered as one of the most highly known brands of tea in the world. Although not as popular as other brands of tea found in other countries, Lipton, however, is the only brand recognized around the world. This is because Lipton is one of the few successful brands of beverages owned by Unilever, a multinational company known for their many consumer brands from foods and beverages to cleansing products as well as skin and beauty products.

Although Unilever's list or brands are seemingly endless, there is only a few brands that is known to achieve over a billion Euros each year. And Lipton is one of the few that always hits this mark. So what is Lipton? And why is that many have come to buy lipton tea which lead to its popularity?

Brief History of Lipton

Lipton is one of the world's best-known and best-selling brands of both hot leaf and ready-to-drink tea. Although currently owned by Unilever, Lipton was once founded by Sir Thomas Lipton in the 19th century in Glasgow, Scotland. Through his brand of tea, his business quickly grew which led him to establish a chain of grocers, first across Glasgow, the rest of Scotland, until finally he had stores throughout Britain.

Through several acquisitions, Lipton was acquired by Unilever. First the brand was acquired by Home and Colonial Stores. Then in 1982, the brand was acquired by Argyll Group. Meanwhile, the Lipton tea business was acquired by consumer goods company Unilever in a number of separate transactions, starting with the purchase of the US and Canadian Lipton business in 1938 and completed in 1972 when Unilever bought the remainder of the global Lipton business.

Lipton of Today

The reason why many would buy lipton tea is because of its special blends, particularly the brand's Yellow Label. Lipton Yellow Label has been sold since 1890, when Sir Thomas Lipton created the first version of the Yellow pack with a red Lipton shield, which to this day typifies the Lipton Yellow Label brand. It is sold in 150 countries worldwide. Lipton Yellow Label is a blend, meaning that up to 30 teas from many different origins are blended together to create a consistent quality and taste.

Today, Lipton has gone through several more modifications as well as the introduction of new products. Apart from black leaf teas, , the company also markets a large range of other varieties, both in leaf tea as well as ready-to-drink format such as green teas, black flavoured teas, (herbal) infusions, Lipton Linea (a 'slimming tea') in Europe and Lipton Milk Tea in various Asian markets. One of today's most popular brand of Lipton is the Lipton Iced Tea. Lipton Iced Tea, in many markets known as Lipton Ice Tea is an iced tea brand sold by Lipton through two joint ventures with PepsiCo. These are the reasons why many have come to buy lipton tea and became one of the most popular brands of tea across the world.