Thomas Lipton

THOMAS LIPTON

Here is a man who is a larger than life character. Born in the working class family, uneducated and left home to America when he was still a little boy. Yet he would go on to become a legitimate self-made millioner before the age of 30 and would develop a supper market empire, which would become a house hold name all over the world - in his own life time. Lipton was the first Global supper star. Nobody has done so much to make tea what it is now - 2nd largest drink in the world only next to water. When you learn this congenial superhero's achievements - you will take a bow to the man with great respect.
In TIME magazine cover 1924

I will leave the honor of singing his praise to his fellow Scots who are so proud of him. This is a copy of the Great Scots section from Scotlandonline.com .

Born in a tenement in Gorbals in 1850, of Irish parents, Tommy Lipton left school at ten and at 15 was in America. He had stowed away in a ship. Initially he worked as a farm laborer in Virginia and South Carolina, later working in a grocer's shop in New York. He must have absorbed American business flair, for five years later he was back in Glasgow opening what was to be the first shop in an extremely successful retail empire.

In ten years he was a millionaire, acquiring tea estates in Sri Lanka and meat processing factories in America. His business philosophy he summed up as, "Work hard, deal honestly, be enterprising, exercise careful judgement, advertise freely but judiciously."

He had a keen sense of advertising and is considered to be the father of advertising. His advertising gimmicks were so famous that they became news headlines, such as -

1.He hired hogs to carry signs on road, causing traffic jams - signs read : "I'm going to Lipton's. The best shop in town for Irish Bacon !".
2.He celebrated the arrival of fresh tea to Glasgow by "Sending a parade of brass bands and bagpipers" and he sold them at one shilling and seven pence when the prevailing market price was three shilling a pound.
3.He made the public to believe that "Orange pekoe" - a type of tea not just a tea grade used for all teas !
4.Advertised the word "BRISK" for making teas using tea bags. He told them his tea bag teas are "brisk" because the bag had four sides for brewing.
5.Ceylone teas became synonymous with "LIPTON" teas after he purchase 5 estates in Ceylon.

In the tea business, particularly, he was innovative, selling different tea blends to different countries and using containers to help preserve freshness. It was Lipton who was the first to package tea in small, convenient tins to keep it fresh, preserve the flavor and guarantee that customers received the correct amount of tea. By the turn of the century, tea was a popular beverage on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1904, two interesting developments happened almost simultaneously that would broaden tea's appeal even more. In New York, a tea and coffee merchant named Thomas Sullivan decided to package loose tea in small, hand-sewn silk bags as an inexpensive and convenient way to distribute tea samples to his customers. To his surprise, his customers brewed the tea in the tea bags rather than removing the contents and so was born the now ubiquitous tea bag.

The Thomas J. Lipton company further improved upon this invention with the introduction of the Flow-Thru Tea Bag in 1952. With four brewing sides, rather than two, boiling water reached the tea more easily, releasing more of the Lipton "BRISK" tea taste.

Lipton's relaxation was sailing and he used his fortune to enter a succession of boats (all named 'Shamrock') in the Americas Cup. He loved his yachting cap and use to sport it on his leisure as well. In all he raced five times but never won. He was such a good loser however, that America presented him with a gold cup anyway!
1901 1910

Lipton never forgot his native city and on his death he bequeathed to Glasgow his extensive personal collection of newspaper cuttings, photographs and memorabilia, now housed in the Mitchell Library.

There are over 100 large volumes of press cuttings from 1877 until his death. They cover all aspects of his business and social life but particularly concentrate on his five unsuccessful challenges for the America's Cup. There are over 2,000 photographs in 48 volumes, which were preserved in part due to financial aid from Unilever, who now own the Lipton brand. "On the 8th January 1930, the tea tycoon Sir Thomas Lipton gifted some £10,000 to the city of Glasgow. This was his native city and in memory of his own mother, the money went towards the relief of poor mothers and their children."

On his death in London, in 1931, Sir Tommy Lipton left no family, bequeathing his estate to Glasgow. His portrait on his brands of tea had become part of the social fabric of the times. Queen Victoria knighted Lipton, both for his commercial success as well as his philanthropy. During the Spanish-American war and later during WWI, Lipton gave money and services to aid the wounded.

SIR Thomas Lipton
(1850-1931)
Take a bow to this remarkable teaman.
He was a true icon of his times.
He died in London in 1931.