TETLEY has awarded the Port of Tyne a long-term contract covering the movement of thousands of tonnes of raw tea and finished product every year.

The world's second largest tea brand, Tetley outsourced all its inbound tea production and finished goods export logistics requirements to the Port of Tyne for markets in Canada, USA, Asia, Europe and the UK.

Tetley said it recognised the Port of Tyne's excellent port centric logistics capabilities and extensive, specialist knowledge of tea logistics and followed a competitive tendering process.

In addition to significant financial savings by taking trucks off the roads and using the coastal feeder service to South Shields instead, it reduces Tetley’s carbon footprint also.

Tetley has calculated this saves over 730,000 road miles per annum and based on fuel consumption of 8.8 mpg, removing 987,840 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.

The Northern Echo:

David Cook, group logistics manager at Tetley, said: “When it comes to working with the Port of Tyne logistics team, what continues to impress us is their eternal commitment to service improvement and excellence.

"The Covid pandemic provides a perfect example and during this extreme period, they immediately rose to all challenges presented and ensured our global supply chain was not only resilient, but could scale to cope with extra product demand."

The Northern Echo:

“Retaining the custom of a mega brand like Tetley for over 20 years wouldn’t be possible if we were not able to precisely meet their requirements and we have demonstrated our effectiveness in doing this for almost 20 years.

"It is a perfect example of the long term, strategic commercial logistics partnerships we want to foster at the Port of Tyne,” said Richard Newton, commercial director for logistics at the Port of Tyne.