Tanganda Tea Company Limited

Tanganda Tea Company was established in 1924 through a partnership between the Ward Brothers and Florence Phillips, who brought tea seeds from Assam in India. In 1927 the company pioneered irrigation-based tea cultivation, the first time tea had been grown under irrigation anywhere in the world.

Ratelshoek Estate was acquired in 1930 and commercial tea production began at the New Years Gift estate. In 1943 the Thomas Meikles Trust acquired a controlling 53% interest, beginning a relationship with the Meikles group that has continued ever since. The company became a public company in 1963 and listed on the Rhodesia Stock Exchange, adopted the name Tanganda Tea Company Limited in 1975-76 and moved its head office to Harare.

The business expanded through the 1990s, purchasing further estates and passing 10,000 tonnes of made tea a year by 1998-99, with Ratelshoek becoming the largest tea factory in Africa. In 2008 Tanganda delisted from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange as part of the merger of Kingdom Financial Holdings, Meikles Africa, Tanganda and Cotton Printers; a de-merger in 2010 separated those entities again.

Following its demerger from Meikles Limited, Tanganda relisted on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange on 3 February 2022 after 14 years off the exchange, and trades under the code TANG.zw. Governance was strengthened with the appointment of additional non-executive directors after the listing.

Corporate structure

Tanganda operates through two divisions. The Agricultural Division comprises five estates in the Chipinge district producing tea, coffee, avocados and macadamia nuts. The Beverage Division comprises a tea blending and packaging facility in Mutare together with distribution centres in Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru.

The company's head office is at 194 Mutare Road, Msasa, Harare. The Board is chaired on a non-executive basis and includes directors drawn from the Innscor and Meikles groups, reflecting the company's shareholding and its history within the Meikles group.