Our Heritage
The Typhoo Tea Shop was created as a place for us to share our passion and help you through the 'best practise guide' to tea selection. We offer a number of great brands on one site so you have everything you need to find the finest black teas, purest green teas, most premium white teas, organics, detox ranges, caffeine free blends, flavoured tisanes and 100% natural fruit and herbal infusions.
"The art of tea is a spiritual force for us to share." - Alexandra Stoddard
The Typhoo Tea Shop was brought to you by Typhoo Tea Limited. We have a long and rich heritage, stretching back to 1903 when Typhoo's founder, John Sumner, became the first to sell ready packaged tea in Great Britain through his small apothecary, as a simple cure for indigestion. Our company has since expanded, gaining expertise but remaining true to the humble discoveries of Mr Sumner by focusing on the finest quality ingredients and functional health benefits throughout all our brands. Our teas are sourced from plantations all over the world and our products now sold in more than 40 countries.
We house the London Fruit & Herb Company - fruit tisanes recognised around the globe; Heath & Heather - offering 100% natural, functional products to an audience growing in health awareness; Ridgways of London - teas which breathe sophistication, founded by Sir Thomas Ridgway, once appointed tea merchant to the royals; regional favourites - Melrose’s and Glengettie; and Red Mountain - expanding our portfolio to include rich coffee blends and deliciously smooth hot chocolates.
Read on to learn more about the changes and developments to Typhoo Tea Limited over the years...
Mid 1960s:
As an industry leader in tea production, Typhoo was annually packing more than 80 million pounds of it and exporting to 40 countries worldwide. Aged 80, J. R. Hugh Sumner, finally retired and handed over the chairmanship to Managing Director, H. C. Kelley.
1968:
Typhoo’s success had, over the years, attracted attention from potential investors. However, it wasn’t until the late 1960s that the management was tempted into a merger. They entered into talks with Schweppes, the famous soft drinks firm, and on 24 January 1968 it was announced that Typhoo was to join Schweppes’ old Food Division to form a new company called Typhoo Schweppes. A year later, Cadbury’s also joined the conglomeration, creating Cadbury Schweppes Typhoo.
1986:
Typhoo was sold in a management buyout and the new company was called Premier Brands. The company immediately set about increasing its tea business with the purchase of the famous Scottish tea company, Melrose’s, in November 1986. This was the first of four acquisitions made by Premier in 1986-7. The second purchase was the Glengettie Tea Company followed by Ridgways of London and Jersey Trading Corporation SrL.
1986-1989:
Significant profit improvement was a key feature of the following years. Premier continued to expand its tea operation by acquiring the herbal tea market leader, London Herb & Spice (later to become London Fruit & Herb Company). Internal growth also saw the development of new products such as Typhoo One Cup and Typhoo QT instant.
1989-2004:
Premier Brands was bought by Hillsdown Holdings and then in 1999 by American venture capitalists Hicks Muse Tate and Furst. Further product developments were seen in 1999 when Typhoo became the first tea brand to introduce a green tea blend to the UK market and, in 2004, with the launch of Typhoo Fruit and Herb.
2005:
On 31 October 2005 Apeejay Surrendra Group, one of India’s largest tea producers, acquired Typhoo and its associated brands. This was a great thing for the company as it gained stature and knowledge from the new vertically integrated business model and allowed the team further control and understanding of the tea production and processes. The new board agreed on one primary focus; investing significant time and effort into improving the quality of our blends to once again become the primary source of knowledge and innovation in the hot beverages marketplace.
2005 and beyond:
The TTL portfolio of products continues to grow and flourish whilst the Great British love of this world renowned beverage stands strong. With innovation in mind, the team continue to impress with great skills and finery in tea selection. Sign up to our Tea Shop newsletter to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and product launches across all of our brands.
2015:
This very website, The Typhoo Tea Shop, was relaunched to celebrate the success of our heritage-rich brands and to share our knowledge and love of all things tea!
2021:
We re-launched the Typhoo Tea Shop, this time on Shopify. Key new features include ApplePay and GooglePay and far better mobile device support, rationalised SKUs (removing legacy products) and courier calculated shipping. This has also enabled us to start shipping Internationally to new destinations which were not possible on the old site.
