the workers at the APPL plantations (Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited)." The company has claimed that APPL is not used in Tetley tea internationally, and that it has supplied only one small shipment of Assam tea for use in Tetley in India in the last three years. In October 2014, UNICEF announced that they are working with tea companies and with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) to tackle child exploitation in Indian tea communities. The three-year program is funded by a number of advocacy groups, Tata Consumer Products, and Tesco. Operations Tetley's manufacturing and distribution business operates in forty countries, selling over sixty branded tea bags. In the early days of Tetley's operations, the company was solely a distributor of tea as it did not have any plantations to call its own, which meant that the company had to buy tea leaves through auctions. This led to the final product having a blend of 40 different types of tea from over 10,000 tea estates all over the world. Its premium packaging and quality helped it gain tremendous amounts of market share. By 1990, with a yearly production of 20 billion teabags, Tetley had gained the title of the second largest tea brand in the world after Lipton. It was only after the acquisition of Tetley by the then Tata Tea, that the company's supply chains were finally consolidated with those of Tata Tea's. This led to most of Tetley's tea leaves now originating from Tata's plantations across India and Sri Lanka. See also Brooke Bond Lipton PG Tips Tata Tea Tetley Tea Folk Typhoo tea Twinings Yorkshire Tea Clipper Teas References External links Official web site 1856 establishments in the United Kingdom Food and drink companies established in 1856 Tea companies of the United Kingdom Tea brands in the United Kingdom Yorkshire cuisine 2000 mergers and acquisitions