McLeod Russel India Ltd is an Indian tea company. It is currently the world's largest
tea growing company.
It is part of the
Williamson Magor Group. It has Thirty One tea estates in the
Brahmaputra Valley of
Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
and Two in the
Dooars
The Dooars or Duars () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India and southern Bhutan that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the Brahmaputra River basin. This region is about wide and stretches ov ...
region of
West Bengal
West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
, three factories in
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
and six estates in
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
.
McLeod Russel produces more than 90 million kilograms of black tea every year.
History
The tale of McLeod Russel began in 1869 when Captain J.H. Williamson and Richard Boycott Magor, two Calcutta-based Englishmen, formed a partnership firm,
Williamson Magor & Company, to service the requirements of tea estates in Assam.
Brij Mohan Khaitan, who had a long-standing relationship with the Company by virtue of being the principal supplier of Packaging Materials and Fertilizers, was invited to join the Board of Directors in 1963. Mr.
B. M. Khaitan eventually became the Managing Director in 1964 and took the Company to new heights.
Over the next half century, the McLeod Russel group has grown and acquired a number of well-established and internationally recognised tea companies, including Williamson Tea Assam, Doom Dooma Tea Company, Moran Tea Company in India, Phu Ben Tea Company in Vietnam and Rwenzori Tea Investments.
It has another subsidiary in Uganda, Mcleod Russel Uganda Limited which cultivates, manufactures and markets tea. It was formerly known as
James Finlay
James Finlay (8 April 1852 – 25 January 1930) was a Scotland international rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophon ...
(Uganda) Limited. The company was founded in 1994 and is based in
Kampala
Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...
.
Shortly before the death of B.M. Khaitan in 2019, his younger son
Aditya Khaitan, has taken over as chairman of McLeod Russel.
Operations
The company's corporate office is situated at 4, Mangoe Lane, Surendra Mohan Ghosh Sarani, Kolkata. As the world's largest producer of bulk tea, McLeod Russel has two tea blending units - the Nilpur Blending Unit, in Assam and the Dubai Blending Unit, in Dubai.
Since 2018 McLeod has to deal with a liquidity crisis. It is reported that in the company's Tea Estate in Assam "most of the working community lives in
penury
Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, ...
even today".
See also
*
History of tea in India
*
Indian Tea Association
The Indian Tea Association (ITA) is a trade association of Indian tea producers. The head office is in Kolkata (Calcutta).
History
ITA was founded in 1881 to protect the interests of tea planters in British India and to promote the consum ...
*
Tea Board of India
The Tea Board of India is a state agency of the Government of India under the control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, established to promote the cultivation, processing, and domestic trade as well as export of tea from India. It was e ...
*
Assam Tea
Assam tea is a black tea named after Assam, India, the region of its production. It is manufactured specifically from the plant ''Camellia sinensis'' var. ''assamica'' (Masters). Assam's people tried to plant the Chinese varieties in Assam soil bu ...
*
Darjeeling Tea
Darjeeling tea is a tea made from ''Camellia sinensis var. sinensis'' that is grown and processed in Darjeeling district or Kalimpong district in West Bengal, India. Since 2004, the term ''Darjeeling tea'' has been a registered geographical in ...
*
North Bengal Tea Industry
References
Tea companies of India
Indian companies established in 1869
Companies based in Kolkata
Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange
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