Historic tea brand, Typhoo Tea, has called in the administrators.
The brand, which marked its 120th anniversary last year, has seen falling sales and profits. In its most recent accounts, its revenue had dropped to £25.33m (FY 2022: £33.67m), with its operating loss growing from £-5m to £-31.651m.
It has now appointed Phil Dakin, Janet Burt and Benjamin Wiles of Kroll to explore a sale of the business and its assets. According to reports, the frontrunner is Supreme Imports plc, the UK’s largest battery and lighting distributor, which also makes e-liquids for vapes.
“The company has been exploring a sale of the business and assets which is in the process of concluding,” Kroll said in a statement.
“The administration process provides Typhoo Tea with protection, allowing the Joint Administrators to finalise the sale in order to rescue the business.”
Around 20 jobs are thoughts to be affected – the majority of its staff (90) left when it closed its Moreton factory in Merseyside last year.
In its accounts, it said that the plan was to sell equipment from the factory or move it to the co-packers, with the site also to be sold.
However, in August a “group of organised trespassers” broke into the site and occupied it for several days and caused “extensive damage to its fabric and contents, making the site inaccessible.”
The machines and plant were “significantly damaged” and stock was rendered unusable.
With that added to a tea paper shortage, it said that despite “robust demand” from customers, it was unable to fulfil some customer orders.
It said that the damage also delayed the sale of the site, which completed in June this year.
It put in a £4.72m insurance claim for the trespassing incident and it also filed £24.1m of “exceptional costs” in its accounts, some of which was related to the break-in.
Following the closure of the site, it moved its registered address from Birkenhead, to Bristol
Typhoo Tea has been majority owned by Zetland Capital since 2021.
