Lipton Teas and Infusions has agreed to transfer ownership of its two tea processing factories in Türkiye’s Rize region to local tea producer Öz-Gür Çay, pending approval from local authorities.
The facilities, which handle drying and cutting of a minority portion of Lipton’s locally sourced tea, would continue to process tea leaves for the company under the proposed arrangement.
Lipton said the move aligns with its global strategy to focus on its core activities of selecting, blending and selling tea, rather than owning processing factories.
All finished Turkish tea, including that from the Rize sites, is already sent to Lipton’s blending and packaging facility in Sakarya. The €30 million state-of-the-art site opened earlier this year and remains central to the company’s operations in Türkiye.
