Andhra factory makes 3 million tea bags daily for global giants Walmart, Aldi and Carrefour

Tirupati: Andhra Pradesh may not figure on India's tea map. Yet, in Tirupati district, an unlikely tea factory belonging to Everton Tea India sources bulk tea from the Nilgiris, Darjeeling, Assam and even China, turning it into three million value-added, flavoured tea bags a day for export.

From there, these tiny bags with private labels make their way to supermarket giants across the world - including Walmart in Mexico, as well as Aldi and Carrefour in Europe - riding largely on the growing appetite for hot, healthy beverages infused with herbs and flavours, a trend that gathered momentum after the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Yes, bulk black tea exporters and select tea planters in Darjeeling and Assam are facing some headwinds. But, as value-adders, we see considerable room for Indian tea to grow in the European and US markets. Consumers are becoming more health-conscious, while some Europeans are also shifting from coffee to tea," said Roshan Gunawardhana, director of Everton Tea India, a subsidiary of Everton SpA, owned primarily by Italian private-equity firm Clessidra Group.

"About 30% of our tea bags are herbal, with the rest split between green and black tea, available in as many as 40 flavours. Over the past three years, we have grown from 2.5 million bags a day to three million. But there is still plenty of room to grow, provided we keep innovating in products and packaging," he said.

The company's factory at Sri City in Tirupati has also begun producing gift-packaged tea bags, responding to what Gunawardhana describes as a growing European appetite for tea as a gift. "One-and-a-half decades ago, when Everton Tea was still a family business run by an Italian entrepreneur with a Sri Lankan partner, they were looking for land in Tamil Nadu, close to one of India's tea-growing regions. But when they discovered Sri City, with the Chennai port just a short distance away, they chose to set up the factory here. It is a rare example of a large tea-exporting facility taking root in Andhra Pradesh," said Ravindra Sannareddy, cofounder and managing director of Sri City.

As Gunawardhana recalled, the factory began operations in 2012 with just two tea-packaging machines and 20 workers. Today, it has expanded to 24 machines and employs around 300 people on the shop floor.

On the company's imports from China, Gunawardhana said about 90% of the tea it processes is sourced from Indian plantations, with the remaining 10% coming from Kenya and China.

"We do import some Chinese tea, not because it is cheaper, but because it has a different profile. It is a matter of taste. Some European customers specifically want Chinese tea, and we need to cater to that demand," he said.

While India's tea exports to China rose 40% year-on to $49 million in FY26, imports from China fell from $12.2 million in FY25 to $8.5 million in FY26.