Liptons vintage tea poster

"Direct from the tea gardens to the teapot."

Spotted in York Castle Museum in the Victorian street recreation.

Thomas J Lipton opened his first store in Scotland in 1871 and it wasn't until the 1890s when he started selling tea after years refusing to stock the more well-known London tea companies. Liptons was a successful, thriving food retailing business which allowed Lipton the opportunity to move into tea in a big way. He went to India and started his own tea plantations in order to cut out the middleman, grow his own tea for a lower cost and package it in smaller quantities. Pre-packaged tea was new; before Lipton it was weighed out for the customer at the point of sale.

Selling in smaller, pre-measured quantities allowed Lipton to wrap it in attractive packaging and allow a wider consumer base of less affluent customers. Lipton employed aggressive marketing strategies; posters, parades, publicity stunts to ensure that Liptons became a market leader.

Lipton was knighted and became a celebrity of his time.

A quick google search should bring up any number of pages with the very interesting story of his life and empire.