Tick Tock, Eleven o’Clock and Dragon Fly Tea owners become latest tea firm to ship beverage blends into South Shields

The family-owned firm Tea Times Trading is switching trade road haulage for a more sustainable method of logistics and ship its tea containers straight into South Shields using the Port of Tyne.

Bosses said the move will save more than 25,000 road miles – meaning 35,000kg of CO2 will be removed from the UK company’s carbon footprint.

Prior to working with the Port of Tyne, Tea Times Trading was shipping containers into Felixstowe and transporting raw tea by road to an inland warehouse, from there the goods were moved to the tea-packing site.

Port chiefs said this was subject to delays due to traffic congestion and more recently, lorry driver shortages.

In contrast, bosses said, a port-centric model shipping into South Shields and using the Port of Tyne’s onsite warehouses is faster, more cost efficient and more environmentally friendly.

Tea Times Trading has been making tea since the 19th century. Best known for bringing the rooibos tea enjoyed by literary detective “Precious Ramotswe” to our supermarket shelves, the company has a portfolio of award-winning brands, including Tick Tock, Dragonfly Tea and Eleven o’Clock.

The firm said lockdowns during the Covid pandemic generated significant sales increases and the company has expanded rapidly in the past 18 months, with new ‘working from home’ norms resulting in consistently higher demand for tea products.

Patrick Busse, director at Tea Times Trading, said finding a more sustainable and lower cost-shipping method working with the Port of Tyne has resulted in many competitive advantages, including a means to offset raw material price fluctuations with lower shipping costs and protecting its customer service reputation by mitigating lorry driver shortages.

“Working with the Port of Tyne brings many benefits at a critical time in the growth of the company. Port centric logistics is definitely the way forward for any business that wants to help achieve its net zero targets,” he said.

Richard Newton, commercial director for logistics at the Port of Tyne, added: “An ever-increasing number of companies are deciding to ship into their local ports instead.

"As one of the UK’s deepest sea ports and with excellent links out to industrial hubs, the Port of Tyne is a very convenient option for manufacturers in any industry sector.”

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