I wanted to research whether tea was still popular, or whether it has seen a decline. The articles below suggest that the days of tea being the English drink may be going and being taken over by coffee in the form of lattes and cappuccinos. Even green tea is selling a lot better than English tea. Does this mean the next generation will not drink english tea and remove our stereotype?
Article from Dec 2013: (LINK)
Article from Dec 2013: (LINK)
New figures today revealed that volume sales of tea are down by more than 6 per cent in the past 12 months, almost double a 3 per cent fall in the previous year.
Experts said it appeared Britons were ditching the traditional cuppa for the more fashionable cappuccino given staggering sales growth at high street chains such as Costa Coffee and the success of coffee makers such as Nespresso.
Industry magazine The Grocer said sales of Tetley Round tea bags were down 17.3 per cent in the past year, while PG Tips Pyramid sales were 6.4 per cent lower. Typhoo sales were up a mere 1.2 per cent.
At the same time, sales of Nescafe are up in supermarkets by more than 6.3 per cent. And high street chains such as Costa are reporting staggering growth as they role out more espresso bars across the UK. Last week Costa Coffee said sales in the past three months were 20 per cent up on the same period a year ago.
Mintel, the market research specialist, added that coffee sales in high street stores hit the £1 billion mark in 2013, more than twice the level of tea bags, £480 million.
Adam Leyland, editor at the Grocer, said: "This year's tea sales mark a significant acceleration in the long-term decline of tea. In 2012, volume sales fell 3.3 per cent. In 2011, they fell 1.7 per cent. So it's basically doubled and doubled again.
Is Herbal Tea taking over?
At an average price of 5p per cup compared to standard tea’s 2p, green tea is the category’s star performer, with value sales up 18%, on volumes up 9%. Value sales of fruit & herbal tea are up 8%, on volumes flat at 0%, boosted by an average price of 7p per cup [IRI 52 w/e 16 August 2014].
“People appreciate that the more they pay, the better quality tea they get,” says Chanter, whose company is selling tea back to the Chinese by exporting to the Far East. She predicts its turnover will increase by 165% to £1.1m by 2018.
Such demand prompted PG Tips to launch a five-strong range of green teas (rsp: £1.29 – 6.45p per bag) and five fruit and herbal teas (rsp: £1.19 – 5.95p per bag) in packs of 20 in January.
Yet with value sales of fruit & herbal tea worth £65.4m and green tea worth just £30m compared to standard tea’s £494.7m, it’s unlikely either sector is going to rescue the total tea category any time soon. Standard tea value sales are down 6%, on volumes down 12.7% [IRI].
I also took the opinions of people from our graphics group and created a pie chart of prefered ways of drinking tea:
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