The world leader in tea is thinking about pouring its cup of the business down the drain, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The consumer-goods behemoth Unilever sees a familiar story in your morning cup: Changing tastes and younger consumers mean a once-hot market is cooling off.
It became the top tea purveyor in the 1970s and 80s, when it acquired Lipton and then Brooke Bond.
They (sometimes unfairly) take the blame for murdering a bunch of beloved products: napkins, cereal… um, homeownership.
Unilever’s CEO, Alan Jope, trotted out a familiar argument: Younger drinkers want experiences, and a plain cup of Lipton doesn’t cut it.
Jope blamed another factor for tea’s demise: You can’t sell loose leaf like it’s gold leaf. Tea prices are so cheap that making extra fancy tea — the kind that might appeal to experience-thirsty millennials — is hard.