Sri Lanka’s Browns Investment Plc dangled a “community development and empowerment” card in the battle for Lipton Tea assets in Kenya, helping the multinational firm to beat Sasini to the deal that would hand it control of 20 percent of the country’s tea industry. On Tuesday, Lipton Tea announced that it had agreed to terms that would pave the way for the transfer of its assets in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania to Browns. In Kenya, Browns will take over Lipton Kenya estates, which comprise 11 plantations and eight factories across the Kericho, Bomet, and Limuru counties in western Kenya’s tea-growing heartland. A consortium of local co-operatives, which had been hopeful of securing the Lipton Tea assets, on Tuesday expressed disappointment at the outcome. CVC acquired the Lipton estates as part of its €4.5bn (Sh653.15billion) purchase of Unilever’s tea division, then named Ekaterra, in 2021.
