PepsiCo and Unilever each control 50 percent of the shares of these joint ventures. PLI was expanded in September 2007 to include a number of large European markets. This was followed in 2003 by a second joint venture, Pepsi-Lipton International (PLI), covering many non-United States markets. In 1991, Unilever created a first joint venture with PepsiCo, the Pepsi Lipton Partnership, for the marketing of ready to drink (bottled and canned) teas in North America. The Lipton tea business was acquired by consumer goods company Unilever in a number of separate transactions, starting with the purchase of the United States and Canadian Lipton business in 1938 and completed in 1972 when Unilever bought the remainder of the global Lipton business from Allied Suppliers. He arranged packaging and shipping at low cost, and sold his tea in packets by the pound (454g), half-pound (227g), and quarter-pound (113g), with the advertising slogan: 'Direct from the tea gardens to the teapot.' Lipton teas were an immediate success in the United States. In 1890 Lipton purchased tea gardens in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, from where he packaged and sold the first Lipton tea. Sales had doubled from £40 million in the late 1870s to £80 million by the mid-1880s. One such item was tea, a rare and expensive luxury at the time. Shortly after opening his shop Thomas Lipton began travelling the world for new items to stock.

Brisk raspberry iced tea bags