Goodricke Group Ltd.

Goodricke Group was incorporated in West Bengal on 14^th June 1977 as a Public Limited Company under the provisions of the Companies Act 1956 (Act). The company grows, cultivates, manufactures, treats, blends, processes, buys, sells and deals in tea in various forms.

All the 17 existing tea gardens of Goodricke Group were owned by eight Sterling Tea Companies. They had established these tea gardens progressively in late 1800’s and were carrying on business in tea in India. Of this, 12 estates are in the district of Jalpaiguri, 3 in Darjeeling in West Bengal and 2 in Darrang district of Assam.

The sterling companies are -- Assam-Dooars Tea, Chulsa Tea, Hope Tea, Leesh River Tea, Lebong Tea, Danguajhar Tea, British Darjeeling Tea and Meenglas Tea.

Pursuant to Section 29(2)(a) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, the Reserve Bank of India agreed to grant permission to carry on business to the Sterling companies subject to takeover of the Gardens by an Indian Company to be formed.

Accordingly based on schemes of merger and with the sanction of Calcutta High Court, the 8 Sterling Companies were amalgamated with Goodricke Group with effect from 1^st January 1978.

Products:

• Bulk Teas - CTC and Orthodox teas from the Dooars, Darjeeling and Assam gardens are sold in bulk form packed in paper sacks, jute bags or tea chests.
• Instant tea - The Goodricke Group developed the concept of instant tea from green leaf at its research and development centre for 4 years before setting up the world’s first integrated Instant Tea Plant at Aibheel Tea Garden in the Dooars.

Brands:

The company’s diversified brands are:

• Castleton Caddy
• Goodricke Premium CTC leaf
• Badamtam Chestlet
• Goodricke Perfect
• Badamtam Sencha Green Tea Caddy
• Goodricke Fine Estate Tea Bags
• Green Tea Carton
• Goodricke CTC – Leaf & Dust
• Thurbo Carton
• Zabardast – Leaf & Dust
• Margaret’s Hope Caddy
• Gold Estate Carton – Leaf
• Premium Darjeeling Carton
• Nakshatra Carton – Dust
• Special Darjeeling – Roasted Jar  
• Three-in-one Pinewood Chestlet  
• Three-in-one Metal Caddy 

Subsidiaries:

• Stewart Holl (India),
• Amgoorie India,
• Koomber Properties and Leasing Company
• Lawrie Plantation Services,
• Borbam Investments,
• Koomber Tea Company,
• Lebong Investments 

Awards/ Achievements:

Apart from fetching world record prices in the recent past, Goodricke’s Castleton brand is also the first tea garden in the world to receive the ISO 9002 certification.