Who Owns Brooke Bond?

Brooke Bond traces its origins to 1869 when Arthur Brooke, a 24-year-old tea dealer born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, opened his first tea shop at 23 Market Street, Manchester. Starting with limited capital of £400 (equivalent to approximately £50,000 today), Brooke adopted a visionary approach to tea retail, offering quality products at accessible prices. The name "Brooke Bond" was deliberately chosen to convey his personal commitment—his "bond"—to customers regarding the quality and value of his teas, a marketing concept that was relatively innovative for the Victorian era.

During the 1870s, Brooke expanded beyond retail, establishing a growing wholesale operation that supplied independent grocers across northern England. This expansion accelerated after 1872 when the UK tea duty was reduced, making tea more affordable for the working classes and significantly expanding the market. By 1880, the company had opened additional retail outlets in Liverpool, Leeds, and Bradford, with a network of over 30 wholesale distribution agents serving smaller towns throughout the region. Arthur Brooke's innovative "value pricing" strategy, offering pre-packaged teas at consistent quality and lower prices than competitors, propelled this rapid growth.

A pivotal development occurred in 1903 when Brooke Bond launched Red Label tea in British India, marking the company's first major international expansion. The blend was specifically created to appeal to South Asian consumers, with a stronger, more robust flavor profile than British blends. This market-specific approach proved remarkably successful, laying the foundation for what would become one of the company's most enduring and profitable brands. By 1910, Red Label had secured significant market share in India, establishing the brand's international credentials and demonstrating remarkable cultural adaptability in product development.

The company's marketing innovation continued in 1908 with the establishment of the Berkshire Printing Company Ltd, a specialized division dedicated to tea packaging and the production of collectible tea cards. Initially featuring educational content about wildlife, famous buildings, and historical figures, these cards became a cultural phenomenon in Britain, with millions of consumers collecting and trading series spanning hundreds of themes over subsequent decades. The most famous series, "PG Tips Chimps," launched in 1956, featured anthropomorphized chimpanzees in human situations and became one of Britain's longest-running and most beloved advertising campaigns until its discontinuation in the early 2000s due to changing attitudes about animal welfare.

PG Tips, now Brooke Bond's most recognized brand globally, was introduced in 1930 under the name "Pre-Gest-Tea," marketed with the rather dubious claim that it aided digestion when consumed before meals. Retailers and salesmen quickly abbreviated this unwieldy name to "PG," and following World War II, when stricter advertising regulations prohibited unsubstantiated health claims, the company formally adopted "PG" as the brand name. The addition of "Tips" occurred in 1950, highlighting the premium nature of the blend which used only the tender top leaves and buds of the tea plant. The brand became Britain's best-selling tea by 1958 and retained this market leadership position for over 35 years.

By 1957, Brooke Bond had achieved unprecedented scale, becoming the world's largest tea company with approximately one-third market share in both the UK and India—the world's two largest tea markets at that time. This remarkable dominance reflected both organic growth and strategic acquisitions, including the purchase of several regional UK tea merchants and Indian tea gardens. The company's operations now spanned the entire tea supply chain from plantation to retail, with significant production facilities in the UK, India, Pakistan, and Kenya.

In 1968, Brooke Bond merged with Liebig Extract of Meat Company (known for OXO bouillon cubes), forming Brooke Bond Liebig Ltd. This merger represented an early attempt to diversify beyond tea into the broader food sector. The combined entity continued expansion until its acquisition by Unilever in 1984 for £389 million, at the time one of the largest food industry acquisitions in British corporate history. Under Unilever's ownership, the Brooke Bond corporate identity was gradually phased out in most markets, with individual brands like PG Tips and Red Label taking precedence in consumer marketing.

In 2011, Unilever consolidated its tea operations globally, with Brooke Bond becoming part of a unified tea division alongside Lipton and other brands. This reorganization reflected shifting consumer preferences and increasing competition in the global tea market. Despite reduced visibility at the corporate level, Brooke Bond maintained strong positions in key Asian markets, particularly India where it remained the market leader in the economy tea segment.

A significant transformation occurred in 2021 when Unilever, responding to shareholder pressure to focus on higher-growth categories, announced plans to divest most of its tea business. After extensive negotiations, Unilever reached an agreement in November 2021 to sell the majority of its global tea operations to CVC Capital Partners for €4.5 billion, creating a new independent entity named Lipton Teas and Infusions. However, Unilever strategically retained ownership of the Brooke Bond brand in India, Nepal, and Indonesia, where the brand held dominant market positions and continued to deliver strong growth.

Since the 2022 sale completion, Brooke Bond has operated under this split ownership structure, with Lipton Teas and Infusions managing the brand in most global markets while Unilever maintains control in the retained Asian territories. In late 2024, Lipton Teas and Infusions undertook a significant brand revitalization for Brooke Bond in European markets, launching premium specialty tea lines under the Brooke Bond Heritage Collection, which highlighted the brand's 155-year history and featured sustainably sourced single-origin teas. Meanwhile, Unilever has continued to expand Brooke Bond's presence in India, launching innovative products like Brooke Bond Immunity Tea (2023) and Brooke Bond Zero-Carbon Tea (2025), the latter produced entirely using renewable energy and carbon-neutral logistics.

As of early 2026, Brooke Bond maintains its position as India's leading tea brand with approximately 26% market share, while its presence in Western markets has been reinvigorated through Lipton Teas and Infusions' premium positioning strategy. This dual development path represents a unique arrangement in the global beverage industry, with a heritage brand simultaneously pursuing different strategies under separate ownership structures in different regions.