If you are bored drinking traditional tea, your prayers have been answered.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), which has a strong presence in both packet tea and tea bag segments through umbrella brands Lipton and Tajmahal, is set to introduce flavoured instant tea for the first time in India.

HUL ED (foods) Shrijeet Mishra said the instant tea would be branded Tajmahal Desert. It would be available in three flavours, Dopcee, Butter Scotch and French Vanilla. “We will first launch it in select locations, including Delhi, before rolling it out nationally.” Mishra said HUL is planning a low key launch as it would like to watch market response to the product. “This is a whole new concept. We have instant coffee but we never had instant tea. Flavoured tea also is new to customers,” he said.



Mishra said along with instant tea, the foods division is also introducing a new variant of ketchup under the Kissan brand. It will be called Chatakdar. The HUL ED said the company would soon add more variants of Knorr soups which are more healthy. “Health and wellness are our slogans,” he said. However, Mishra made it clear that HUL has no immediate plans for the biscuits segment. HUL tried to enter the biscuit segment in 2003 through Modern Foods but discontinued it.

The turnover of the food business of HUL is now close to Rs 2,000 crore. The business is having a compounded annual growth rate of 20%. “We are hopeful of higher growth this year,” Mishra said.

Source:TOI