How does Goodricke's garden grow?
India, the second-largest tea-producing country globally, has witnessed a major transformation and grown manifold over the years. The industry is now struggling with a number of issues, such as climate change, stagnation of yield level, old age of plantations, high cost of production, regulatory issues, influx of cheap tea, and shifting of consumer preference. However, only a few tea companies have developed the knowledge to defeat all odds, and Goodricke Group Limited (GGL) happens to be one such breed.
GGL has devotedly ploughed back a share of its profit to nurture the bushes and educate its workforce to adopt the best practices to produce quality tea. This has helped its gardens to fetch premium prices for its teas. Today, GGL is benchmarked as an ethical player for its tea-growing practices in the industry that offers consistent quality tea.
GGL is a subsidiary of £262 million Camellia plc, UK, a global group focused on agriculture. It produces core crops like tea, macadamia, and avocados, as well as specialty crops like wine grapes and blueberries. With 100,000 employees operating across nine countries, Camellia is the largest private producer of tea globally, and the Indian subsidiary contributes to over 30 per cent of its total production.
The Indian operation of Camellia owns 27 tea gardens. While GGL is the listed entity with 16 tea estates, the remaining 11 are owned by the three other unlisted Indian companies – Stewart Holl India, Amgoorie India, and Koomber Tea Co. All the 27 tea estates and factories are situated in Darjeeling, Assam, and the Dooars at the foothills of the Himalayas and produce over 32 million kg of tea per annum. That makes it the third-largest company after McLeod Russel and Amalgamated Plantations. GGL employs close to 33,000 garden workers, and 50 per cent of its produce is sold through auctions.
“Quality is a synonym of Goodricke,” says Arun Narain Singh, executive vice-chairman & managing director. “It is embedded in our culture and practices and is not negotiable. We have invested in planting material and world-class processing facilities”.
Popular brands
GGL is one of the reputed exporters of quality Indian tea to the global tea market. The group’s packaged tea business has popular brands, such as Goodricke Chai, Goodricke Khaas, Roasted, Castleton, Margaret Hope, Barnesbeg, Samovar, Zabardast, Super Cup, etc, sold across the country. These are taken to the pan-India customers through general trade, modern trade, and e-commerce.
The company is now in a restructuring mode. It has decided to divest some of its non-performing tea estates, streamline the existing gardens for quality, reduce the cost structure, and rejuvenate the packaged tea business. The group has also taken a paradigm shift to move beyond its core tea business venture into alternate crops, milk products and tea tourism on the unsuitable tea-growing land of the company.
In March last year, the group brought back its former managing director, Arun Narain Singh (who retired in 2018), as an interim managing director, to advise the board on the need for the restructuring exercise. He was given full authority to execute the process. Singh, who had spent all his working life in Goodricke and is a known face of Indian Tea industry, had maintained a good equation with its principal stakeholder Camellia plc, too.
“I came more as a facilitator than as a trouble-shooter, to pull the company out of the problems caused by climate change, pest activity, and market dynamics and ensure that our crop is restored to the 2019 levels,” explains Singh. “We have been giving a new direction to the company through diversification, while also focussing on our core business of growing and making good teas.” He has guided a turnaround in GGL’s performance over the results of 2023-24. The group has recorded higher crop yields than the previous year and realised better prices for its produce, thereby ending in a better financial condition, despite the carry-forward burden of wage increase in mid-2023.
As part of the restructuring process, during the current financial year, GGL sold two tea gardens – Leash River and Chalsa – in the Dooars in Bengal for Rs45 crore. “The proceeds of the sale will be used to reduce borrowings and interest costs and also reinvest in the business,” informs Soumen Mukherjee, finance director, GGL. “And, there are more gardens on the block.”
GGL’s new initiatives to grow alternative crops and dairy products have commenced. It has set up a dairy farm and is also growing organic spices and horticulture crops on the 200 acres of land available for use. It plans to sell these products through the company’s distribution channels. The expansion of its agriculture portfolio with new crops helps it to create a more sustainable and diversified business model.
Tea tourism takes off
The company also has taken baby steps into tea tourism, with a four-room Maharanee bungalow in the Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate in Darjeeling – surrounded by the Himalayan hills, with gentle slopes of tea bushes offering nostalgia of the British raj of the koi hai days of the old tea planters. This is mainly for HNIs (high networth Indians), who like adventure tourism. It offers a total tea experience – from plucking to tasting – and takes the visitors through the colonial era.
“We have plans to add a similar boutique 15-20 room facility in Thurbo Tea Estate in Mirik,” says Singh. GGL is also talking to hospitality majors to build and run more such properties in their tea gardens across Darjeeling. Tea tourism is now popular, and several tea gardens in Darjeeling have been offering it in alignment with the government policy.
All tea gardens are government land leased to tea garden owners. The state government had earlier announced that, wherever land is available within the tea gardens and plantations are not active, it will allow 30 per cent of such land for hotel business, commercial utilisation, and eco-tourism. The decision has inspired tea estate owners to look for alternative business activities. The state believes this would allow tea gardens to generate additional revenue at a time when the plantation sector is under pressure, with supply exceeding demand.
Tea garden owners have welcomed the decision, as the policy will be most beneficial to sick or weak tea gardens. Earlier, too, some tea gardens in Darjeeling and Siliguri had availed of the government’s scheme. Prominent among such ventures are Ambuja Neotia’s resort operated by Taj in Makaibari Tea Estate and May Fair Tea Resort at Chumta Tea Estate at Siliguri. Now, several more gardens have reportedly submitted proposals to develop tourism, healthcare, and education facilities.
Shaibal Dutt, 52, will succeed Singh as the new managing director of GGL on 6 September 2025, when Singh retires. Dutt acknowledges the move of disinvesting in some weaker gardens and investing in core gardens. “This will strengthen our quantity and quality of production in the coming years,” he says. “There are two more gardens – Chaloni in Dooars and Bansbeg in Darjeeling – on the block.” Dutt has been with the company for 31 years, working in the garden as well as the packaging business. “My stint with the branded tea gives me a 360-degree exposure to where the tea sells and what happens to it after the manufacturing process,” adds Dutt. All planters do not get similar opportunities, he says.
Dutt’s priority now is to complete the ongoing restructuring and diversification. The process of strengthening the core business, which is manufacturing, is expected to be complete by the end of 2026. “So, we may lose 3-4 per cent crop by the sale of the non-productive gardens,” Dutt admits. “But, it can be substituted by doing more value addition in the packet tea business.”
GGL’s packet tea business involves the production and sale of high-quality Indian teas, including Darjeeling and Assam varieties of iconic gardens. The business operates through a digital presence, an e-commerce platform, and a hospitality sub-vertical with tea lounges and kiosks. As a large Indian tea producer with numerous gardens and factories, GGL focuses on quality, sustainability, and reaching out to a global consumer base for its packet teas. The division has 300 distributors that reach out to 100,000 retail outlets throughout the country. The division contributes 25 of the revenue of the group and has recorded a 5 per cent growth in sales volume, when compared to last year.
The packet tea market is about 600 million kg, of which Tata and Unilever control almost 48 per cent. “We are in for the rest of the market. It is a huge but level playing field. It is important to have the right price mechanism and willingness to spend on promotional activities, to make the division more remunerative; this was not done significantly earlier,” Dutt acknowledges.
Sustainability is a major issue, but again, such an exercise starts with economic viability, without which everything falls apart. So, first, we are looking at economic stability, says Dutt.
Plagued by woes
In 2024-25, India produced 1.35 billion kg, compared to 1.39 billion kg in 2023-24. The world tea production has also remained stable, but the climate in the tea-growing areas in India continues to be erratic. Also, an increase in wages and the high social cost of this labour-intensive industry are major concerns. Besides, the shortage of labour during peak sessions in some parts of tea-growing states is becoming a major problem. The cost of production has increased manifold, and labour cost is close to 55 per cent for the organised players, who comply with the entire plantation act and ethical practices for tea growing. However, such stringent norms are hardly followed by the small tea growers (STG), who control close to 60 per cent of the Indian tea production today.
“The top-most requirement for the tea industry is to be compliant with MRL (maximum residue limit),” says Singh. “This refers to tea that meets the legally established tolerance limits for pesticide residues set by food safety authorities like the FSSAI. For that, the immediate need is to approve good fourth-generation chemicals. The other equally important requirement is to increase the per capita tea consumption by intensive promotion both internally and externally.”
GGL has five gardens in Darjeeling, 10 in the Dooars, and 12 in Assam. It produces high-quality tea, which commands a premium. The group implements the highest technologies and maintains international standards in tea production. “Our gardens have multiple certifications for environment-friendly operations and ethical work processes and contribute towards socio-economic upliftment of human resources,” says J.C. Pandey, visiting agent for GGL’s Darjeeling and Dooars gardens. Concurs Mukherjee: “As a quality producer, the company held on even through the crisis period. Gardens and their infrastructure created around them are ahead of the industry.”
Darjeeling’s tea story
Darjeeling, the Queen of Hills, produces the best quality tea in the world. The Darjeeling brand is regarded as a generic name for any high-value tea, just as champagne is associated so closely with the wineries of France. Darjeeling was the first Geographical Indication (GI Tag) registered in India. The commercial planting of Darjeeling tea goes back over a century to the period shortly after the licence of the East India Company with China was abolished. An Englishman, Thomas Campbell, it is said, planted the first tea bush in 1840. Even today, there are huge numbers of bushes that are over a hundred years old and still give the best teas.
Castleton established its position as the numero uno of the Darjeeling gardens, planted in 1885 by Charles Graham. The garden has consistently fetched record prices at tea auctions and is sought after by tea connoisseurs and royalty alike from different parts of the world. It has received worldwide recognition for its exotic tea flavour, including its famous muscatel tea from select and pure China bushes spread across 320 hectares, which produce 0.6 million kg per annum. Each plucker is trained to pick only the right leaves and buds, to maintain quality. The replanting and rejuvenation of the tea bushes are undertaken regularly.
Margaret’s Hope and Thurbo are also popular tea gardens of GGL, sought after by international tea buyers. Margaret’s Hope is known especially for its muscatel teas and fine first-flush teas. Margaret’s Deck Tea Lounge on the garden top is a must for tourists who seek knowledge of all types of Darjeeling teas, as well as refreshment and an uninterrupted panoramic view. It is difficult even to get a seat in the lounge during the peak tourist season.
The Goodricke Group is known for its strong commitment to social responsibilities, which are not restricted to the tea gardens alone. In a unique initiative, the company set up Goodricke School for Special Education (GSSE), providing therapy intervention and special education for children with multiple disabilities, such as autism, spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disability.
Creating a better environment
This project is entirely maintained by Goodricke Group Charitable Trust. Set up in 1993 in a small rented premise with a couple of children with special needs, GSSE now has a strength of 150 and its own building, constructed by the trust. The company’s mission is to create an environment where people of all abilities are respected and cherished as valuable members. “We cater to all sections of society in this day school,” says S. Nayak, principal, GSSE. “The boys to girls ratio is 69 to 31”. The goal at GSSE is not only to provide therapy but also to change the mindset about disability in society.
The Indian operation reported a consolidated annual revenue of Rs1,162 crore in March 2025, as against Rs1,034 crore in March 2024. Its profit after tax rose to Rs30.99 crore in 2025, as against a loss of Rs95.75 crore in March 2024. While promoter Camellia plc holds 74 per cent in the Goodricke group, the other 26 per cent is with the public. GGL’s current stock price is Rs195, with the company having a market cap of Rs421 crore.
“The debt level now is manageable,” says Mukherjee. “We have reduced it. It was Rs114 crore in March 2024 and even lower at Rs68 crore in March 2025. Normally, the debt goes up during the bonus payout in September, then again comes down.”
“GGL has a long legacy in plantation,” says Sukhjeet Singh Malhotra, MD, Amalgamated Plantations (APPL). “It was a pioneer of Darjeeling tea and had also strengthened its position in Assam. A long-term industry player, it followed the ethical practices of tea growing. As a competitor, we do not take it lightly, but it is on a level playing field with us. In certain parameters, we use Goodricke as a benchmark.” APPL is the emergent entity from the divestment of the plantation business of Tata Tea in East and North India.
“There are indeed many challenges, but, in this changing world, opportunities do present themselves,” affirms Goodricke’s chairman, Stephen Charles Buckland, responding to a question on the challenges the tea industry is facing, while the margins have been shrinking. “We are adapting to this new environment, not only in respect of growing tea, but in maximising the use of currently underutilised assets. And, it would be remiss of us not to leverage this in the best way possible.”
GGL has immense brand value and established markets. And, the industry is watching it closely to see how it goes through the new avenues, while continuing to retain its brand dominance.