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Two UK speciality organic tea brands are joining forces to build an £11m operation to take advantage of booming sales of speciality teas.
English Tea Shop has acquired London-based contemporary Joe’s Tea Company for an undisclosed sum. Both are currently exempt from filing full UK accounts, but it is expected the newly combined entity will generate sales of £11m in the 2017/18 financial year.
A spokesman said English Tea Shop grew revenues by over 40% in 2016/17 with sales at Joe’s Tea Company up 27% in the year, with combined revenues thought to be around £9m last year.
The combined entity hopes to take advantage of the growing thirst for organic tea, with UK organic tea sales surging 11.8% to £28m last year.
Joe’s founder Joe Kinch will remain at the helm, with English Tea Shop described as a “major shareholder”.
Read the full story on thegrocer.co.uk later today
Morning update
The Grocer looks at what is next for Moy Park after under-fire Brazilian parent company JBS said it was hoping to sell the business. City sources suggest JBS will have its work cut out finding a buyer with the necessary scale to absorb one of Europe’s largest poultry suppliers.
Click here for the full story.
The Grocer also investigates the boom in crowdfunding for nascent food brands and looks at the success rate for crowdfunded start-ups and whether there is there adequate protection for punters after some recent post-funding collapses.
Click here for the full feature.
This week’s edition of The Grocer also contains an analysis of what Amazon is likely to do next in the UK and whether Nisa members will acquiesce to being swallowed up by Sainsbury’s.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 ended the day down just 0.1% at 7,439.3pts after clawing back early losses through the day.
The news that Diageo (DGE) is set to pay up to $1bn (£790m) for an upmarket tequila brand started by Hollywood A-lister George Clooney received a lukewarm response on the markets, with the drinks giant dropping 1.6% to 2,336p yesterday.
The supermarkets continue to come under pressure as the market weighs up Amazon’s next move in the European grocery market. Tesco (TSCO) dropped another 0.8% to 166.5p and Sainsbury’s slipped a further 1.2% to 250.4p – both at their lowest levels so far in 2017.
Morrisons (MRW) has escaped the sell-off given its lack of its own bespoke delivery service, but did fall a hefty 2.7% to 241p yesterday.
Ocado (OCDO), conversely has been boosted by the likelihood of grocery retailers needing to quickly up their online game and the possibility Amazon could see it as an acquisition target. Ocado was again up yesterday, rising another 0.8% to 302.6p, meaning it is up by more than 10% so far this week.
Other fallers included British American Tobacco (BATS), down 1.2% to 5,485p, Cranswick (CWK), down 1.4% to 2,917p, B&M European Value Retail (BME), down 1.4% to 335.3p and Dairy Crest (DCG), down 1.8% to 620p.
Also down were PayPoint (PAY), down 3.5% to 947p, Premier Foods (PFD), down 3.1% back to 39p, Science in Sport (SIS), down 3.1% to 78.5p and AG Barr (BAG), down 2.2% to 634.5p.
The day’s few risers included Imperial Brands (IMB), up 1% to 3,583.5p, Hotel Chocolat (HOTC), up 3% to 352.3p and Applegreen (APGN), up 1.1% to 460p.
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