rishna Kumar had a problem at hand. He had India’s biggest business empire backing him and a high-quality product—the finest tea from the most famous hills. But by the time it was
transported in wooden boxes from the hills, he realised, there was a distinct loss of freshness.
“KK was a brilliant mind,” brand expert Harish Bijoor recalled the iconic managing director of Tata Tea, who passed away this year, and the simple idea with which he revolutionised India’s favourite drink. “But you don’t need a brilliant mind to come up with an innovation. All it takes is a simple idea!”
KK’s idea was simple, and, as it turned out, very effective. Along with fellow honcho Darbari Seth, he figured out that while the wooden chest was classy, it did lead to loss of quality. His solution? Laminate polypacks to vacuum seal the tea so that it is not spoilt in wooden or carton boxes during transportation and retail.
Bijoor was then working at Hindustan Lever, Tata Tea’s main rival. “I was on the other side of the fence, and my first reaction was ‘this is downgrading packaging!’ Marketers’ brand paradigm is that products must look glossy and upmarket, tempting people to buy. And Tata Tea was downgrading packaging,” he said.
Down the line, Bijoor and rest of the market realised it was packaging that was functionally correct. Not only did sealing keep the tea fresh, the reduced size and weight of polypacks meant the trucks coming down from the estates could carry a lot more load. This ‘polypack revolution’, as Bijoor called it, not just changed how tea was packed, but also “pioneered the way in many other categories”.
This story is from the December 31, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the December 31, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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