Lipton biography Thomas

The amazing life and adventures of the Lipton’s tea tycoon author photo, Getty images September 24 If you say the word Lipton, then most people on the planet will immediately think about tea. However, behind this well -known brand is the incredible story of Thomas Lipton, a dreamer from the slum of Glasgow, who has passed the path of "mud to the riches", who became a philanthropist and an athlete who was revered as "the most cheerful loser in the world." And in this story it was not without a miracle.

On a December day, a steamer with an unusual load from America - the largest cheese head in the world. She was more than 60 cm thick, and her circle reached four meters. Hundreds of passers-by accompanied WHO with an unusual cargo to the Tomas Lipton store on High Street, where it turned out that the cheese simply would not crawl through the door. The procession went to another businessman’s store for Jamayaka Street, where the doorway was wider.

The cheese was taken out of the cart and transferred to the window in the hands. That is what they called the cheese, which was believed to be made from milk of cows, which were finished with milkmaids. It was a wonderful advertising, but Tommy Lipton saved another surprise for the inhabitants of Glasgow. With a gesture worthy of the fairy-tale character, Willy Wonka, he turned the cheese into a miracle, hiding a large number of gold coins in it.

Ivan Tiktor: "Rural Man", who became a media magnate a few days before Christmas, dressed in the white suit Thomas Lipton began to cut the cheese. The police had to spend several tense hours, maintaining order around the businessman’s shop, while his assistants packaged pieces of cheese legion of buyers who came with the hope of making a happy purchase. This was the theatrical performance of one person who was at the top of success and opened more and more shops in Britain.

And all this was surprisingly different from his childhood, spent in the poor district of Gorbals in Glasgow. His parents were Irish migrants from the County of Ferman to Olster. Thomas made the first steps in business in a small shop that his father opened in a poor area on the banks of the Klyde River, on which the Scottish city of Glasgow is located.

From summer age, he loaded food products from ships at the WHO in the port of Glasgow and headed to his father’s store. Childhood without electricity: the story of the founder of Flickr Port and the stories of sailors fascinated the young Tommy Lipton. At the age of 15, he became Yunga on a ship, and two years later he accumulated enough money to make a trip to the United States.

There he worked on rice and tobacco plantations in Virginia and South Carolina, but most of all the guy was struck by New York. On Broadway, he got a job in a huge supermarket opened by another migrant of Irish-Shottland, Alexander Terner Stuart. It was a marble palace, a temple of consumption, one of the largest shops that existed in the world. You get a lot of goods that you can sell and earn money if you sell it at a reasonable price.

Traders, shopkeepers bargained with customers about price. He is Stewart. After five years spent in America, Tommy Lipton returned to Glasgow. He had no big money, but now he had an understanding of how to earn it. At 23, he opened his first shop - "Lepton store" on Stobross Street. For the inhabitants of Glasgow, it was a completely new experience. Director of the Sir Tomas Lipton Foundation Lawrence Brady says that the businessman’s shops were brightly painted and were very different from those he saw in his childhood.

So Brady describes the typical Lepton store: “He has a sales assistants in bright white aprons. His store is very brightly lit. He is impeccably clean - and behind the counter is His Majesty Sharm. Everyone who comes in, hears:“ Let me show you the goods that we have, they were very accessible. “Business without intermediaries is a recipe for success. Such stores soon spread to the same stores.

The central Scotch - with the same name over the door - Lipton, but it was only the beginning that his business depends on the reliable supply of high -quality products, a significant part of which was imported to his homeland, he went to his homeland, in the county of the farm in the north of Ireland. Guaranteed the price. It was a revolution, it was a completely new way of doing business.

This is how modern supermarkets work - they directly go out to farmers, and thus get rid of intermediaries, ”says Makheu. His stores were now opened throughout Scotland - and always with large pumps. Mysterious billboards and leaflets announced the approach of the appearance of lipton stores. The sculpture of oil in the window, a parade of living pigs that caused chaos in the city center - this is only Some of the tricks that made the discoveries of Lepton stores with an unforgettable event.Tommy Lipton did not have to rely on third -party suppliers, he had full control over his supply chain.

From labels to packaging, distribution, and their chain of stores. Tommy had all this, ”says the Scottish entrepreneur Duncan Bunnatin. When Lipton’s shops spread throughout Britain, he took the next step - he started to conquer America. Here he got rid of intermediaries again, bought a whole meat processing plant and calling him the name of his mother.

In Britain, meanwhile, the gigantic cheeses of Lipton became symbols of the approach of Christmas. It was reported that the store manager in Nottingham even rented an elephant to transport one of such cheeses around the city. In the year, Lipton proposed to give an even larger head of cheese, weighing at least five tons, Queen of Victoria. At the court, politely refused. Whether the proposal was surprised to the queen is still not known.

Thomas Lipton has always been looking for new opportunities for business - and this directed him to the area that is associated with his name to this day. He became interested in tea. In May, Lipton went to Sri Lanka to buy his first tea plantation. He quickly defeated competitors. In this place you could buy both very good tea and very bad. Thomas Lipton himself, the same guy from the poor district of Gorbals in Glasgow, fell into the highest light of Victorian society.

When the Princess of Wales Alexandra decided to organize a charity banquet in honor of the Diamond anniversary of the reign of Queen Victoria in a very short time, it was Lipton who helped 25 thousand donations. The following year he was dedicated to knights. He knew how to charm, and it was so easy to deal with him, ”says Lawrence Breedi. And now, when he reached summer age, he had all the possibilities to realize his cherished childhood dream.

America, which is mentioned in the name, is not a country, but a yacht with the same name built by members of the New York yacht club. The squadrons of the America took part in the race and returned to the silver trophy after a few years, this award was dedicated to the international sporting competition, in childhood, Thomas Lipton was fond of ships arriving in Glasgo, made their models and “sent it” to the city’s waters, when it turned 50.

To receive the highest reward, they should have been built in the country of the Yacht Club. He was refused. Instead, he joined the Royal Ulster yacht club, based in Bangor, in the North Irish county of Daun. During the first competition in the year, Thomas Lipton won the hearts of many Irish. Its yacht was called Shamrock - "Trilist", according to the name of the plant, which is the national symbol of Iralndia.

Thomas Lipton lost in the race, but got fame. Everyone talked about Sir Thomas Lipton - and the Lipton brand has become more famous than ever. His face with the hachtsman’s headdress was on the packaging of the products that the company produced, says the historian Judith Krell -Russian “Women wanted to have photos with him to say“ Oh, I have a photo with Thomas Lipton.

”He was like Elvis Presley, he was a star. People wanted to purchase goods under this brand,” she says. The luxurious Lepton yacht Erin - this is how the Irish called their homeland with tenderness - became the place where famous people of that era came - US President Roosevelt, German Kaiser Wilhelm, Edison and Marconi scientists. They say that Thomas Lipton prohibited all the conversations about religion or politics on board.

He made from Erin as a gospital ship and gave it to the red cross. Next year, this ship sank a German submarine. Lipton fought twice for the America Cup after the war - and most of all approached the victory of the year, but the "old mug", as he called the trophy, always eluded him. But the adamance and humor, with which he took defeat, caused admiration throughout America.

After his fifth and second attempts to win the America Cup in the year, Hollywood actor Will Rogers began a campaign, during which he asked the American public to sacrifice the dollar to buy the golden “Cup of Love” in order to note the persistence and sports spirit of the most cheerful loser ”in the world. He died next year, bequeathing most of his condition to his native Glasgow.

A huge crowd filled the streets when the funeral motorcycle went to South Necropolis, where Sir Thomas Lipton was buried - less than a mile from his native district Gorbals. Today, Lipton chains have been largely forgotten, other companies absorbed it. His surname lives his life, mainly as a brand of tea, which now belongs to Unilever.But for many modern entrepreneurs, such as Duncan Bannatin, Sir Thomas Lipton remains a source of inspiration.

He says: "Tommy has never won this luxurious cup, - but he won something much more. The love, respect and admiration of people from different spheres, from all over the world, making him a winner." Follow our news on Twitter and Telegram, read the same.