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The newly restructured Tata Global Beverages, with powerful brands such as Tetley, Good Earth and Eight O' Clock Coffee, has framed a two-pronged strategy to strengthen its brand presence across the globe. TGB has now five global and 15 regional brands across regions such as India, Canada, the UK, the US, Czech Republic, Poland and Russia.
The marketing initiative is loosely based on hub and spoke structure with a global marketing team at the centre connected by regional teams with respective heads of local brands being positioned as region presidents.
The finance, HR, R&D and operations functions of these brands will now report directly to the global heads of each of these functions.
For example, strong regional tea brands such as Tata Gold, Tata Tea Agni, Grand (a Russian brand) and Czech beverage brand Jemca are now being managed by the regional marketing teams.
After the restructuring, the MD of Tata Tea, Mr Percy Siganporia, is now the Deputy CEO of TGB, the COO of Tetley, Mr Peter Unsworth is now the CEO of the company and the CEO of Eight O'Clock Coffee is now the Region President, US.
Stronghold markets
Mr Nalin Miglani, Chief HR and Communication Officer, Tata Global Beverages, told Business Line that the company is focusing on innovation and growing in its stronghold markets that have been divided into five regions internationally.
These are: the UK and Africa, South Asia, Canada and South America, Europe and West Asia, and Asia-Pacific.
The regional heads push sales and marketing, and each regional hub functions as a brand-oriented marketing organisation, says Mr Miglani. The company is also working on changing its product portfolio.
For instance, about five years ago, nearly all the group's turnover came from tea, but now the figure is nearer 70 per cent, indicating its intention to move beyond tea.
For the Indian market, TGB plans to bring in more health and wellness products, different ways of consuming coffee and tea at different price points, Mr Miglani said.
Over 65 per cent of the company's revenues now come from outside India. Revenues for the financial year 2010 stood at Rs 1715.6 crore.
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