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Article: Tea wars While Unilever has been building global brands, trouble is brewing for PG Tips, its UK tea, for years the undisputed market leader. James Hall investigates
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- December 5, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2004 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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`If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth
and beauty," according to the ancient Japanese proverb. On that
basis, Unilever is not quite the judge of the finer things that it
once was.
Unilever owns PG Tips - for donkey's years the UK's leading tea
brand. However, while Unilever has been concentrating on promoting
its so-called global consumer brands - which do not include PG - the
tea brand's longstanding rival Tetley has captured market share and
is now neck and neck with it.
The intense competition has come against a background of a
slightly shrinking market. Tea-drinking is still a national pastime -
196m cups are drunk in Britain every day - but the pounds 500m-a- ...