Starbucks Sell Tea Brand

The American arm of Starbucks has announced that it is focusing efforts on its premium tea range. The high-street coffee giant, said that they are selling it’s Tazo brand to Unilever including IP, inventory and signature recipes. The deal was reported to be in excess of $380 million. Starbucks are looking now to focus on one single tea brand strategy with their super premium tea brand, Teavana. The Tazo brand started in 1994 and 5 years later, they were purchased by Starbucks for over $8 million. The brand is sold in supermarkets and comes as packaged tea bags, pods and ready-to-drink beverages.

It is reported that the tea sector in Starbucks has seen strong growth across the brand’s global chain and they have said they will continue to invest in innovation, development and growth of the Teavana brand. In the past year, they have sold over $1.6 billion Teavana Crafted Iced Teas which reflects the group's’ strong push in this sector.

The Chief executive officer of Starbucks UK, Kevin Johnson, said: “Over the past five years, we have established Teavana as our primary global brand focused on the premium tea segment. With our growth strategy for premium tea exclusively focused on Teavana, we are pleased to transition our Tazo business to Unilever,”.