Balmer Lawrie to exit domestic tea business

Indian government-owned Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. announced it is planning to exit from domestic tea operations. “We are not trying to grow in tea,” Balmer Lawrie Managing Director S.K. Mukherjee said. Earlier, the firm had transferred its London tea operations to United Kingdom-based tea and coffee retailer Duncan MacNeill & Co. Ltd. The company will focus instead on logistics services, logistics infrastructure, travel and tours, industrial packaging, greases and lubricants. He said that while its key profit driver was the logistics business, the main revenue driver was travel and tours. He added that the company would draw up a new capital expenditure plan for the next five years within this fiscal year. (April 23, 2009)