“Typhoo is such an iconic brand,” said Supreme chief executive Sandy Chadha. The company said the decision to buy it was a mix of “sound business rationale and personal affinity”.
It added that the deal was part of Supreme’s strategy to branch out into other areas. Currently the company works with soft drinks, gym supplements and multivitamin gummy brands, as well as non-food items such as batteries and home lighting. It also manufactures sports nutrition and wellness and soft drinks, and also has its own sales websites to sell direct to customers.
Supreme distributes to stores including B&M, Home Bargains, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, The Range and Poundland, as well as HM Prison and Probation Service.
Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Supreme had bagged a bargain by buying the firm out of administration, and that now “it’s highly likely that Supreme will want to steam ahead and find efficiencies to cut costs and try and coax the company back to profit”.
“It has loyal custom it can build on, but also will spy new opportunities given tea’s wellness image to tie into the ambitions of its supplements and multivitamin arm,” she added.
Typhoo fell into administration after its pre-tax losses rose from £9.6m to £38m. Its sales fell from £33.7m to £25.3m, according to its latest results which covered the year to the end of September 2023.
Its debts became more than the value of its assets, and costs related to a break-in at its Wirral plant added to its woes.
But Supreme said buying the company was a “significant step” and that Typhoo would “thrive” because of the brand loyalty customers had to the tea brand.