Williamson Magor
Williamson Magor is one of the largest tea plantation groups in India, producing over 75 million kg annually. This represents about a fifth of the total tea produced in Assam. Williamson Magor owns 57 tea estates in Assam and West Bengal and provides direct employment to over 110,000 people. The tea estates of the company are over 140 years old.The erstwhile company "Williamson Magor" . It now functions as Mcleod Russel India Ltd. They produce approximately 100 million kilos of high quality tea a year from our tea estates in Assam, West Bengal, Vietnam and Uganda. Tea business directly employs over 90,000 people. It continues to be a WM enterprise.
Our story begins in 1869, when Captain J.H. Williamson and Richard Boycott Magor, two Englishmen based in Calcutta, formed a partnership firm, Williamson Magor & Company, to service the requirements of tea estates in Assam. The offices were originally at 7 New China Bazaar Street, in Calcutta before they moved in 1894 to Four Mangoe Lane, where the Company is still located today.
The Williamson Magor Partnership grew in strength over the years and went through the usual cyclic patterns common to the tea industry. In 1954, it was renamed Williamson Magor & Co Limited, when it changed its status to a limited company
In 1975, Williamson Magor merged with another company, Macneill and Barry Ltd which had interests in tea and other businesses. The new company was named Macneill and Magor Limited.
1987 saw the Guthrie family in the UK selling their shareholding in the McLeod Russel group, which included the Makum and Namdang Tea Companies to the chakraborty family, making the Macneill and Magor group, the single largest producer of Assam tea, a position still held by the group.
In 1992, Macneill and Magor Limited was renamed Williamson Magor & Co. Limited.
In 1994 the Group through McLeod Russel India Limited bought 51% of the Equity Share holding of Union Carbide India Limited and the Company was renamed Eveready Industries India Limited. Subsequently, McLeod Russel India Limited was merged with Eveready Industries India Limited. After the said merger the new Company had two Divisions, the Bulk Tea Division which managed the Tea estates of McLeod Russel and the Battery Division which produced and marketed the popular Eveready batteries and flashlights.
In April, 2004 Eveready Industries demerged the two divisions into two separate companies, McLeod Russel India Limited and Eveready Industries India Limited. This enabled McLeod Russel to concentrate on its core business of tea production. Eveready, with the second largest retail distribution network in India, enjoys more than 50% market share in their battery and flashlight business.
In July 2005, McLeod Russel acquired Borelli Tea Holdings Limited from the Magor family based in England and took over the 17 tea estates of its Indian subsidiary Williamson Tea Assam Ltd.In 2006 and 2007 McLeod Russel acquired two more quality Tea Companies in Assam namely Doom Dooma Tea Company and The Moran Tea Company India Limited. All three Companies acquired between 2005 and 2007 have been merged with McLeod Russel India Limited and thereby the Company became the largest Tea producing Company in the World.
In 2010, Borelli acquired the Rwenzori Tea Investments Limited from James Finlay International Tea Holdings Ltd. based in the United Kingdom.
The history of Rwenzori Tea, was initially set up as a para-statal and in 1994 was bought by James Finlay International and the Commonwealth Development Council (CDC) and jointly rehabilitated the tea estates and factories. In 2001 the CDC sold its stake to James Finlay International. McLeod Russel intends to continue the programme of systematic upgrades to the factories and estates.
The Republic of Uganda described as the “Pearl of Africa” is a landlocked country North-west of Lake Victoria and bordering Sudan to the north, Democratic Republic of Congo to the West, Rwanda and Tanzania to the South and Kenya to the East.
McLeod Russel Uganda now runs six estates, with five factories and that produce over 15million kilos of made tea per annum. The six estates located on the western side of the country straddle the equator and produce tea that can be harvested around the year. They currently cover a tea area of approximately 3,300 hectares with the potential of a further 700 hectares of virgin land. Mcleod Russel Uganda directly employs over 5,000 people in the country.
Our Tea business directly employs around 90,000 people, a large number of whom are women.
The group runs the Assam Valley School at Harchurah near Tezpur, and the Magor scholarship scheme for engineering and business management students.[1] It has established Williamson Magor Education Trust started the Assam Valley Literary Award in 1990, now a prestigious award.[2][3]
References
- ↑ "WM group funds social schemes in Assam". Business Line. March 10, 2000.
- ↑ "Another plume in writer’s crown". The Telegraph. April 13, 2008.
- ↑ "Assam Valley Literary Award to Nagen Saikia". Indian Express. Jan 1, 2008.