Trouble is brewing for the traditional British cuppa, a report has warned, with sales falling by more than 6% over the past five years.



The increasing popularity of coffee has taken its toll, with UK retail tea sales dropping from an all-time peak of £699m in 2010 to an estimated £654m this year, according to the consumer analysts Mintel.



But it is the standard cuppa which is losing steam, with sales of ordinary teabags – which have traditionally dominated the market – falling by 13% from £491m in 2012 to £425m last year.

The popularity of alternative teas – including new ranges from traditional brands such as Tetley and PG Tips – has gone from strength to strength. Between 2012 and 2014, sales of fruit and herbal teabags grew by 31% from £58m to £76m, while sales of speciality teabags rose by 15% to £63m and sales of green teabags leaped by 50% to £36m.

Emma Clifford, senior food and drink analyst at Mintel, said consumers were becoming much more adventurous in their choice of tea to drink at home, triggering strong sales of fruit or herbal teas, speciality teas and green tea, reflecting what she said was “a growing foodie culture in the UK”.

One of the factors behind the decline in tea has been that it has lost out to coffee. Clifford said: “There has been a lot of innovation activity and premiumisation in coffee in recent years, with growth in premium formats like coffee pods and coffee beans. New formats and the coffee shop culture have encouraged switching from tea to coffee – but the rate of this switching is likely to abate, with a large base of core users unlikely to change their tea drinking habits.”

The volume decline was even sharper, down from 97m kg to 76m kg over the past five years.



In the UK tea brands have spent millions of pounds diversifying into new green tea ranges. Tetley, for example, the most popular tea brand in the UK, is also the fastest-growing green tea brand. Last year, rival PG Tips launched a range of green teas alongside fruit and herbal teas.

The UK Tea and Infusions Association, which represents the world’s tea producing and exporting countries, pointed out that tea was still by far the most popular hot drink in the UK, with over 165m cups being drunk every day. That compares with 70m cups of coffee.

The report said more than three out of four (76%) drank tea in the month to April this year, and over half (54%) said they drank it at least once a day.

Falling sales of biscuits and cakes may be having repercussions on the tea market too. Volume sales of sweet biscuits fell from 451m kg in 2009 to an estimated 413m kg last year.

