Clipper Tea was started in 1984 by Lorraine and Mike Brehme. Already being in the tea industry, they cited increased amounts of child labour in the trade as their original motive to found Clipper. Clipper Tea started in the couple's
Dorset kitchen with two chests of
Assam tea, which they bought for £50 and sold to local health food shops in the Dorset area. Their product approach was "always a pure, natural product – there isn't a single artificial ingredient in any of our products". In 2008,
Perry Haydn Taylor's creative branding agency was approached to rebrand the business. They created new Clipper packaging and the slogan "Natural, fair & delicious". In 2012, the business was sold
Royal Wessanen which is now a multinational named
Ecotone, headquartered in France and owned by private equity. Creative branding agencies continued to work with the brand. Exports grew by 40% in 2012 and the manufacturing facility in
Beaminster was expanded with capital investment. In 2022, Clipper was the UK's sixth biggest tea brand and its tea was exported to over 50 countries. Clipper produces 95 varieties of tea with up to two million tea bags made per day. In
Germany,
Spain,
Italy,
Lithuania and
Czech Republic the brand is called Cupper Tea because another tea brand had already registered the brand name "Clipper" in Germany. ==Ethics==