Akbar Tea

Akbar Tea is a Sri Lankan tea brand owned by Akbar Brothers Ltd, a family-controlled tea business whose commercial roots extend back to the nineteenth-century food-trading activities of the Hebtulabhoy family. The brand was formed in 1969 after Abbas Akbarally and Inayet Akbarally left Hebtulabhoys and Co. to establish Akbar Brothers. Akbar Brothers subsequently developed into one of Sri Lanka’s principal tea-exporting businesses, and the Akbar name became associated with packaged tea sold in Sri Lanka and overseas. The brand’s portfolio is built around Sri Lankan tea and spans several mainstream and specialty formats. These include black tea, green tea, flavoured teas, herbal teas, tea bags, loose teas, and gift-oriented products. This combination allows Akbar Tea to serve both everyday household consumption and packaged-gift occasions, while retaining an identity connected with the Ceylon tea tradition. Publicly available information does not establish a single flagship product or a complete current catalogue of grades, blends, pack sizes, or country-specific variants. Akbar Brothers began exporting to major Middle Eastern tea markets and other international destinations within three years of its establishment. In 1972, the business was incorporated as Akbar Brothers Limited, with Shaikh Akbarally joining his sons after retiring as chairman of Hebtulabhoys and Co. The company remained family owned and managed. Its tea operations include a 276,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Kelaniya district of Colombo, providing an industrial base for the processing and packing of its tea products. Akbar Tea is positioned as an accessible Sri Lankan tea brand with broad international distribution rather than as a narrowly defined luxury or boutique label. Its product breadth, export orientation, and association with Akbar Brothers’ manufacturing and trading operations are central to its market identity. The parent Akbar Group has also developed interests outside tea, including property development, healthcare, and electricity generation, although those activities are separate from the consumer tea brand. In July 2022, the company expanded its operations to Oman, adding to its presence in the Middle East and illustrating the continuing international orientation of the business. Available reference material describes Akbar Brothers as Sri Lanka’s largest tea exporter, but does not provide independently verified sales figures, market-share data, revenue, or a detailed account of the brand’s current geographic performance.

Akbar Tea’s corporate background is connected to a Sri Lankan family trading tradition that predates the brand by more than a century. In 1864, Shaikh Hebtulabhoy migrated from India to Sri Lanka and established a food import and export business in Pettah. His son, Tyeabally Shaikh Hebtulabhoy, later created M. S. Hebtulabhoy and Company Limited. That business began shipping tea overseas in 1907, establishing an early family connection with the international tea trade. The modern Akbar business emerged in 1969, when Abbas Akbarally and Inayet Akbarally, grandsons of Tyeabally Shaikh Hebtulabhoy, resigned from Hebtulabhoys and Co. and founded Akbar Brothers. The new company entered export markets rapidly. Within three years it was exporting to major tea markets in the Middle East as well as to other parts of the world, giving the Akbar name an international commercial base soon after its creation. Akbar Brothers Limited was incorporated in 1972. Around the same period, Shaikh Akbarally, the founders’ father, retired as chairman of Hebtulabhoys and Co. and joined his sons’ business. This transition linked the new company’s management with the older family enterprise while creating a distinct corporate platform for the Akbar tea business. Akbar Tea developed as the consumer-facing brand of that tea operation. Its range came to include conventional black tea alongside green, flavoured, and herbal teas, sold in both tea-bag and loose-tea formats. Gift products were also part of the range. The available historical material does not identify individual product launch dates or provide a complete chronology of packaging and blend changes, but the breadth of the portfolio indicates an effort to address multiple consumption occasions and preferences. The business remained family owned and managed. Akbar Brothers operates a 276,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Kelaniya district of Colombo, supporting tea production and packing in Sri Lanka. The company is described in reference material as Sri Lanka’s largest tea exporter. Its export orientation is particularly associated with Middle Eastern markets, although the brand is also distributed in other international markets. The wider Akbar Group expanded beyond tea into property development, healthcare, and electricity generation. These activities broadened the family group’s corporate interests while Akbar Brothers continued to serve as its tea-exporting and tea-manufacturing business. In July 2022, Akbar Brothers expanded its operations to Oman, marking a more recent development in the company’s international presence. Public information available for the brand is more detailed about its parent company and historical origins than about consumer-level performance. There is no reliable basis in the supplied material for stating revenue, market share, a definitive list of current countries, or a named current executive team. Accordingly, Akbar Tea is best characterized as an active Sri Lankan tea brand with a long family-business lineage, a broad packaged-tea portfolio, and an export-led operating model.

• 2022

  Operations expanded to Oman

  [1]Akbar Teaen.wikipedia.org

  Akbar Brothers expanded its operations to Oman in July, extending the parent company’s Middle Eastern operating presence.

• 1972

  Akbar Brothers Limited incorporated

  [1]Akbar Teaen.wikipedia.org

  The company was incorporated as Akbar Brothers Limited. Shaikh Akbarally also joined his sons’ business after retiring as chairman of Hebtulabhoys and Co.

• 1969

  Akbar Brothers established

  [1]Akbar Teaen.wikipedia.org

  Abbas Akbarally and Inayet Akbarally left Hebtulabhoys and Co. and established Akbar Brothers, the business associated with the Akbar Tea brand.

• 1907

  Family company begins overseas tea shipments

  [1]Akbar Teaen.wikipedia.org

  M. S. Hebtulabhoy and Company Limited, established by Tyeabally Shaikh Hebtulabhoy, began shipping tea overseas.

• 1864

  Family food-trading business established in Sri Lanka

  [1]Akbar Teaen.wikipedia.org

  Shaikh Hebtulabhoy migrated from India to Sri Lanka and established a food import and export company in Pettah, creating the family business background later associated with Akbar Tea.

An internationally exported Sri Lankan tea brand offering accessible everyday and gift-oriented tea products across traditional, flavoured, and herbal categories.

• Tea

  Black tea

  Black tea is a core Akbar Tea category and reflects the brand’s connection with Sri Lankan tea production and export. It is offered in packaged formats serving routine household consumption and the broader retail market. The supplied sources do not specify the full range of grades, estates, blends, or pack sizes.

• Tea

  Green tea

  Green tea forms part of the brand’s broader portfolio beyond traditional black tea. It gives Akbar Tea a product category for consumers seeking a lighter tea style and supports the company’s multi-category export proposition. Specific variants and launch dates are not confirmed in the available material.

• Tea

  Flavoured teas

  Flavoured teas extend the range with blends or preparations differentiated by added flavour profiles. They complement the brand’s conventional tea offering and can address consumers looking for variety beyond unflavoured black or green tea. The reference material does not identify individual flavours or product specifications.

• Herbal beverage

  Herbal teas

  Herbal teas are included in Akbar Tea’s stated product range, broadening the brand into non-traditional tea and botanical beverage occasions. No reliable source supplied for this entry establishes the exact ingredients, health claims, formats, or market availability of individual herbal products.

• Tea format

  Tea bags

  Tea bags are one of the brand’s principal formats, offering convenient portioned preparation for everyday consumers. They may be used across several Akbar Tea categories, including black, green, flavoured, and herbal teas. Specific packaging lines and market-by-market assortments are not documented in the supplied sources.

• Tea format

  Loose teas

  Loose tea is another stated Akbar Tea format and preserves a more traditional preparation style associated with Sri Lankan tea. It supports retail consumers who prefer brewing by measured leaf rather than using bags. The available material does not provide a definitive list of grades or regional packaging variants.

• Gift tea

  Tea gifts

  Gift products broaden Akbar Tea beyond routine pantry consumption and provide packaged presentation for gifting and hospitality occasions. The sources confirm the existence of gift offerings but do not establish their exact contents, presentation, price positioning, or current availability.

• 2022

  Expansion of operations into OmanStrategy

  Background

  Akbar Brothers had an established export orientation focused in part on Middle Eastern tea markets. The company expanded its operations to Oman in July 2022.

  Action taken

  The company extended its operating footprint into Oman. The available source does not specify whether the expansion involved a factory, subsidiary, distribution arrangement, or another corporate structure.

  Aftermath

  The move increased the parent company’s presence in the Middle East, but reliable information on subsequent investment, sales, or market results is not provided.

  Source

1. 1Akbar Teaen.wikipedia.org