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Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers Ltd

Overview

Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers Limited is an Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company engaged in the blending, processing, packaging and marketing of tea. Headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the company is best known for its Wagh Bakri family of tea brands, which are sold across India and exported to several international markets.

Key facts

Name Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers Ltd
Industry FMCG (tea)
Headquarters Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Flagship brand Wagh Bakri
Type Private limited company
Country India

Background

The company traces its origins to the Wagh Bakri tea business founded by Narandas Desai, who began cultivating and trading tea after returning to India from South Africa in the early twentieth century. The Desai family later established Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers Ltd to consolidate processing, packaging and distribution operations under a single corporate entity, with the Wagh Bakri brand as its principal market identity.

The brand name and logo, depicting a tiger (wagh) and a goat (bakri) drinking tea together, are intended to symbolise equality and harmony, themes drawn from the founder's association with the freedom movement era.

Operations

Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers Ltd procures tea from auction centres and gardens in major Indian tea-growing regions, including Assam, the Dooars, Darjeeling, the Nilgiris and Munnar. The company operates blending and packaging facilities and distributes its products through a wide network of retail outlets, with a particularly strong presence in the western Indian states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Brands and product lines

  • Wagh Bakri — the flagship blended black tea, available in loose-leaf and packaged formats.
  • Mili — a value-segment tea brand.
  • Good Morning — a premium blended tea.
  • Specialty offerings including green tea, instant tea premixes, masala chai and tea bags.

Tea Lounge

The group operates the Wagh Bakri Tea Lounge, a chain of café-style outlets in select Indian cities that serve a variety of teas alongside light food, intended to extend the brand into out-of-home consumption.

Significance

Wagh Bakri is widely regarded as one of the leading packaged tea brands in India and among the largest tea companies by volume in the country, alongside Tata Consumer Products and Hindustan Unilever's Brooke Bond. The company has played a notable role in popularising branded packaged tea in western India, a market historically dominated by loose tea sold through local grocers.

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