In 1863, William Sumner published A Popular Treatise on Tea as a by-product of the first trade missions to China from London. In 1870, William and his son John founded a pharmacy/grocery business in Birmingham. William's grandson, John Sumner Jr., took over the running of the business in the 1900s. Following comments from his sister on the calming effects of tea fannings, in 1903, John Jr. decided to create a new tea that he could sell in his shop. Sumner set his own criteria for the new brand:
The name had to be distinctive and unlike others.
It had to be a name that would trip off the tongue.
It had to be one that would be protected by registration.
The name Typhoo comes from the Chinese word for "doctor". Typhoo began making tea bags in 1967. In 1978 production was moved from Birmingham to Moreton on the Wirral peninsula in Cheshire. The Moreton site is also the location of Burton's Foods and Manor Bakeries factories. In 2005 the company was sold by Premier Foods plc to the Indian conglomerateApeejay Surrendra Group, of which it is now a subsidiary.
Recent history
Ownership
In 1968, Typhoo merged with Schweppes. The following year this company in turn merged with Cadbury to form Cadbury Schweppes. In 1986, in an effort to focus on their core brands, Cadbury Schweppes sold Typhoo, along with Kenco coffee and Jeyes Fluid. Typhoo was subject to management buy out forming a new company, Premier Brands, which acquired, in rapid succession, Melrose's, the Glengettie Tea Company, Ridgways, and the Jersey Trading Corporation. In 1990, the company was itself acquired by Premier Foods, then trading asHillsdown Holdings. In October 2005, the Indian company Apeejay Surrendra Group purchased the brands for £80 million from Premier Foods and created The Typhoo Tea Company. The brand is still manufactured at Moreton on the Wirral. Record high material costs and adverse currency movements saw Typhoo Tea's profits plummet to a £20m loss in the year ending 31 March 2018. The tea maker recognised the year as one of the most challenging trading periods for the business in recent history. Typhoo Tea just recently has proposed cutting about a quarter of posts at its headquarters to safeguard the future of the company. The restructuring, which is subject to the outcome of a consultation, would see 55 full-time and 21 temporary jobs closed at the firm's factory in Moreton, Wirral, a spokesman said. He said the plan came against "the backdrop of an increasingly challenging trading environment". In 2020 Typhoo Tea reported mounting losses in a “watershed” year for the business, raising doubts on the historic tea brand’s ability to continue trading. The tea maker reported pre-tax losses of £29.9m for the 12 months to March 2019, up from £20m the prior year. The accounts warned that an inability to refinance or extend its current financing agreements “represents a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt over the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”. Furthermore, the accounts stated there remained a “high level of uncertainty” as to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, despite reporting an upward trend in supermarket sales under lockdown. Typhoo blamed its poor performance on the decision to continue to pursue an “aggressive” sales growth strategy focused on boosting its own-label business. Apeejay Typhoo Tea is the Indian arm of Typhoo, manufacturing and selling products in India.
Sponsorships
In 2012, Typhoo became the main jersey sponsor for St. Helens Rugby league club which competes in the Super League.
Slogans
The Typhoo brand is well known in Britain for its long-running television commercial campaign jingles, such as :
