Tata Tea ready to “mix it up” - eyes international specialty soft drink portfolio.

Tata Tea Group , subsidiary of Mumbai based TATA group and second largest manufacturer of packaged tea products and well known for its tea brand Tetley, today announced its interest to acquire International brand “specialty” soft drink manufacturer portfolio to diversity its current tea group revenue stream.

Some of the specialty drinkers of interest are Seattle based NASDAQ listed (Ticket : JSDA) Jones Soda Company and privately owned Queens, New York based Arizona beverage company. Currently 70 % of revenue contribution comes from tea based products and Tata group is interested to bring it down to 50%. In United States leading specialty tea brand - Good Earth is owned by TATA tea group.

And one of the notable acquisitions in recent times (June 2008) from TATA group is its purchase of high-end luxury brands Land Rover & Jaguar from Ford Motors.

Will TATA Tea “taste” success again in USA?