Lipton Teas and Infusions, the world’s largest tea group, has announced the appointment of Pierre Laubies as its new CEO.
Laubies has been acting as interim CEO of LT&I since the departure of former boss Nathalie Roos last year.
Prior to this he was chair of the company’s supervisory board, since its establishment following the split from Unilever in 2022.
Laubies had “30 years of leadership experience at multinational companies including Mars and Campbell Soup Company”, LT&I said in a statement.
He was the CEO of Dutch coffee giant Jacob Douwe Egberts between 2013 and 2017, as well as American beauty company Coty between 2018 and 2020.
Roos exited LT&I after a little over two years in September, citing personal reasons.
Under her tenure, the tea group relaunched its PG Tips brand as well as establishing a new “global responsible sourcing partnership” with tea exporter Brown’s Investments.
That arrangement included the sale of tea plantations in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania, including the Kericho plantation in Kenya where workers were alleged to have faced abuse and exploitation under Unilever’s stewardship.
PG Tips’ rebrand has so far failed to take off, however.
Despite updated packaging, the addition of a quick-brewing teabag and a glitzy TV push featuring actor Ashley Walters, PG Tips lost £15.1m on volumes that declined by 37.8% last year [NIQ 52 we 7 September 2024].
In February, the brand rolled out a fresh £2m campaign targeting the breakfast consumption occasion, having added four new blends to its line-up in November.
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