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John Sumner

Dennis Williams

Gone but not forgotten
More tea Vicar? Typhoo's Beginnings…..the story of Birmingham’s John Sumner and the birth of the TyPhoo Tea Company…

Tea is possibly the one product that everyone comes across or uses every day of their lives. In fact it some cases it seems that the day cannot start without tea and must be stopped for tea and must finish with tea!
The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) was cultivated in China in the 4th century for medicinal purposes. In England the earliest mention of tea in writing seems to be in 1615. On 25th September 1660 the diarist, Samuel Pepys, wrote that he had tasted tea for the first time. Tea drinking had arrived in London but it was only for the rich, as it was very expensive. The earliest reference to tea drinking in Birmingham was in 1742.

Tea would have to come by horse transport to Birmingham, so this accounted for its expense. In 1767 one tea warehouse in Birmingham was Mansells (Sketchleys Birmingham Gazette). Ironically perhaps, it would seem that public tea drinking came about by public houses opening tea gardens.
By the 19th century tea was being served in inns and coffee houses, and by 1812 there were 25 recorded tea dealers in Birmingham. In 1824 John Cadbury set up as a tea dealer and coffee roaster at 93 Bull Street, and his story is already on here…

By the turn of the 20th century, Birmingham had over sixty tea merchants selling mostly large leaf tea. 
 John Sumner, was born 26 February 1856 in Birmingham. In 1824 his grandfather (William) and father (John) had established a grocery business in the High Street corner of the Bull ring in Birmingham, after they bought Pratchetts and Nobles grocery and druggists shop at 97/98 Bull Ring. In 1820, William married into the Hutton family, and Typhoo Tea was launched from this site - where The Times furnishing buildings now houses Waterstones the booksellers, next door to William Hutton’s premises.
In the early 1900s John Sumner senior, now in his seventies, left the running of the High Street shop to his son. John junior was happy with the successful business, but had long sought a speciality product to develop. The answer came from his sister Mary Augusta. She suffered from indigestion and had tried a special tea made from tiny particles, not the large leaf variety that was common. The tea brought her great relief from her indigestion and she approached John to suggest he sold the tea in his shop.


John Sumner


At that time, John Sumner’s family lived not a stone’s throw from me now in Yardley, in a delightful place called May’s Cottage…or simply, The Cottage…on the corner of Stoney Lane and Vicarage Road…but on with the story….


The Cottage


Vicarage Road....



1911 Census entry for the Sumners


John decided to go ahead. He bought 30 chests of tea and spent £200 on advertising, even though his friends suggested he might be wasting his money. John decided that, instead of selling the tea loose over the counter, he would packet the tea under a brand name. The criteria he placed on choosing a name for his tea were:
The name must be distinctive and unlike others:
It must be one which would trip off the tongue
It must be one which could be protected by registration

He finally settled on Typhoo Tipps. Typhoo meaning, in part, the Chinese word for doctor. The double ‘p’ in Tipps was originally a printing error, but remained misspelt on the packets of tea for many years.




The Typhoo brand is well known in Britain for its long-running television commercial campaign jingles, such as :
Putting 'T' back into Britain
There's only one 'T' in Typhoo
You only get an 'OO' with Typhoo
For the tea that picks you up, pick up Typhoo
Making Good tea since 1903
Typhoo Tea - Two Thumbs Fresh

Typhoo was the first brand of tea to be sold pre-packaged rather than loose over the counter. In order to encourage his customers to purchase the tea John gave away a jar of cream to each person that bought a pound packet. The tea quickly became popular and John's customers were becoming loyal to the brand that. Word of mouth recommendation from John's customers led beyond his regular clientele and soon other grocers were asking to purchase the Typhoo tea, inspiring John to set up his wholesale agency trade.
1905 saw John close his grocery business in order to pay off debts to the bank. However, he took the opportunity to invest in Typhoo and create a private company. On 29 July 1905, and financed by John's friends, Typhoo Tea Ltd was incorporated.

In the first year, Typhoo managed to show a small profit and silence the critics that said John would never make a business from small-leafed tea. John had, however, drawn attention to tea made from the edge of the leaf. This pure-edge leaf tea produced 80 more cups to the pound than ordinary tea and also cut out the stalk that contained tannin and caused indigestion. John even managed to get his tea recommended by doctors and was able to sell it through chemists' shops.

As early as 1906 John Sumner was having special Typhoo branded teapots made to sell to his customers. He also inserted circulars into the tea packets to highlight its benefits, and included picture cards on a range of subjects, which became very collectable. I remember some of them well, when they revived this sales gimmick in the 50’s…especially the football team ones…Some lovely examples of these can be seen here…

https://www.englishteastore.com/typhoo-history.html
 
Continued....

Typhoo Tea Ltd made steady progress. In 1909 John had managed to pay off all his debts. He celebrated by travelling to Ceylon to appoint a buying/blending agency to buy the tea directly from the tea auctions, therefore reducing costs. John also moved all his blending requirements to Ceylon, again reducing costs and resulting in a reduction of the cost of Typhoo to the public. The company continued to grow in both size and in the loyalty of its customers. But quality problems with these Ceylon based producers, and two World Wars (and 12 years of consequent rationing of course), plus the bombing of the premises in Digbeth, also impacted on the business, but in spite of all this the Company survived, and then grew.


Bomb Damage 1945


Factory in Fazeley Street


Wartime also saw a change to the name of the company. 'Sumners' was dropped from the front of the name, leaving Typhoo Tea Ltd. 

After tea rationing had finished, Typhoo once again concentrated on promoting their brand. Throughout the 1950s they used various promotional campaigns, including the reintroduction of the picture cards that had been popular before the war.

By the mid 1960s, Typhoo was annually packing more than 80 million pounds of tea and exporting to 40 countries worldwide. J R Hugh Sumner, aged 80, finally retired and handed over the chairmanship to managing director H C Kelley. 

Typhoo’s success had, over the years, attracted attention from potential investors. However, it wasn’t until the late 1960s that the management was tempted into a merger. They then entered into talks with Schweppes, the famous soft drinks firm, and on 24 January 1968 it was announced that Typhoo was to join Schweppes’ old Food Division to form a new company called Typhoo Schweppes. A year later, Cadbury’s also joined the conglomeration, creating Cadbury Schweppes Typhoo. 

In 1986 Typhoo was sold in a management buyout and the new company was called Premier Brands. It then underwent quite a few changes of Management, and finally, up to this present time, on 31 October 2005 Apeejay Surrendra Group, one of India’s largest tea producers, acquired Typhoo and its associated brands, and has had it ever since.

In 1932 John Sumner was knighted in recognition of his charitable services that included the founding of the John Sumner Trust, devoted to work with education, literature, art and research. The award also recognised John's setting up of the Colehaven Endowed Homes for Gentlewomen in Coleshill, where they also had one of their very old shops, and his work with hospitals.

He even wrote a book about tea in 1863 ….. which you can read here….
https://archive.org/stream/apopulartrea ... 6/mode/2up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S62RWO2Gips Nice cup of Tea Binnie Hale
 
Dennis
I think you should add that between 1906 and 1930, when they moved to Digbeth, the factory was in Castle St, as seen on this photo

Golden-Elephant_C.jpg
 
Thanks mike....I did see your response on an earlier thread on this subject about this....and I have that photo (for the pub, obviously!), BUT never noticed the TyPhoo name before!.....and did you also mention something about Bordesley Street? And thanks for your response...always informative and useful additions...
 
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