London-listed Supreme has paid £10.2m to buy the Typhoo Tea business. In the year to September 30, Typhoo generated revenues of around £20m.
The acquisition also includes Typhoo’s other brands such as QT, Lift, Herbalists, Heath & Heather, London Fruit & Herb Company, Glengettie, Melrose’s, Ridgeways, Red Mountain Coffee and Fresh Brew.
Typhoo, one of the UK’s favourite tea brands, went into administration on 27 November putting the future of the 121-year-old company in jeopardy. However, following the deal, Supreme plans to reinvigorate Typhoo by leveraging its supply chain network to secure the future of the iconic brand.
Supreme is a leading manufacturer and supplier of fast-moving consumer goods and the acquisition will further expand its operations.
Supreme CEO, Sandy Chadha, said:
“I grew up with Typhoo. Drinking it and watching the ‘you only get an OO with Typhoo’ ads with Su Pollard from Hi-di-Hi. That was my era. Typhoo is such an iconic brand, and with Supreme’s distribution network and resources, we have the scope to grow and develop it.
“The acquisition of Typhoo Tea marks a significant step in our broader diversification strategy and brings one of the most iconic UK consumer brands into the Supreme family. I believe Typhoo will thrive under our ownership, further benefitting from Supreme’s significant market reach and successful track record in creating brand loyalty, making us an ideal fit for this business.
“We are very excited about these latest additions to our portfolio, which mean we can serve our existing customers even better and get acquainted with many new ones.”
Sandy added:
“We were delighted to work with the Mills & Reeve team who helped us seize the opportunity at short notice and complete the transaction in record time.”
The Mills & Reeve team advising Supreme was led by partners Stephen Hamilton (Corporate, Cambridge) and Neil Smyth (Restructuring, London) and included Morgan Bowen (Restructuring), Sofie de Pfeiffer (Corporate), Alex Woolgar, Robert Beveridge and Humna-Siddique-Khan (Intellectual Property), Lucy Williams (Employment) and Rob Douglas (Real Estate).
Mills & Reeve LLP advised Supreme Imports Limited, as the buyer of the Typhoo business. TLT LLP advised the administrators of Typhoo Tea Limited.
