Every cup of rich Karirana Tea
is served with a
Healthy Dose of History

1903

Kenya’s first tea seedlings were introduced and planted in Limuru about 5 kilometres from Karirana Estates. The Caine brothers brought the seedlings from India.

1925 - 1930

Between 1925 and 1930, two brothers from the Turnstall family of the United Kingdom planted the first tea farms in what now comprises Karirana Estates. Most of the farms that now make up Karirana were originally used for rearing cattle or growing wattle and geraniums before the land use changed to tea cultivation.

1956

Karirana Estates Limited was incorporated by Mackenzie Dalgelty farms to grow and manufacture high quality tea for export, with the company George Williamson Kenya Limited appointed as the managing agent.

1960

Most of the tea was planted between 1956 to the late 1960s. The factory was also built during this period and commissioned in 1960.

1986

In 1986, First Chartered Securities Limited, a Kenyan owned investment holding company, acquired Mackenzie Kenya Ltd. George Williamson ceased being the managing agent and Karirana Estates Limited became self-managed.

2000

Karirana has over the years acquired reputation as a global leader in the production of high quality tea, a reputation that has been built through continuous improvement initiatives for over 60 years.

2005 - 2008

The long journey of Eden Tea began when Karirana Estates initially launched Karirana Tea pouches and sachets in 2005. The move was informed by the need to add value and produce tea that was ready for sale to the final consumer at the factory. Due to increasing consumer demand, Karirana Estates Limited launched a national brand – Eden Tea in 2008.

2018

In line with our company vision and customer focus values, Karirana Estates Limited introduced specialty tea to its product portfolio. During this year, the first Purple Tea garden was planted in Karirana tea farm.

Present

A significant proportion of Karirana Estate Tea is sold in bulk through the Mombasa auction. The tea is popular in many markets e.g. Pakistan, Egypt, United Kingdom, Sudan, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates and United States of America.

Mission

We are committed to innovatively and sustainably producing quality tea and providing quality services that meet and exceed the expectations of our customers and stakeholders.

Vision

Karirana Estates Limited aims “To make Eden Tea the preferred tea in East Africa”

Our Core Values

Karirana’s core values are the foundation of our business philosophy and strategy that are woven into every aspect of our corporate life. These are not values that change from time to time, situation to situation or person to person but rather, they are the underpinning nature of our company culture.

Integrity

Doing the right thing is an important component of the Karirana culture. Whatever it takes, we believe in treating all people with dignity, respect and fairness and in following ethical business practices at all times.

Teamwork

At Karirana Estates Limited, we emphasize teamwork and open communication among all individuals and departments in the organization. We value informed risk taking, accountability for actions and recognition for results. We believe in collective responsibility towards a unified corporate purpose.

Customer Focus

At Karirana Estates Limited, we strive to understand and anticipate our customers’ needs and deliver what they truly value. We are committed to developing long-term relationships with our customers, which can be leveraged for mutual benefit.

Continual Improvement "Kaizen"

At Karirana Estates Limited, we believe in initiative and drive. We are committed to getting better every day in all we do as individuals and a team. We strive for excellence by continuously working to innovate and improve our processes, products and services

Community & Social Responsibility

We value the communities in which we operate and play an active role in environmental conservation and in enhancing quality of life. We believe in fair trade practices and engage in sustainable agricultural and good manufacturing practices.

We run our business with precision, just like we make our tea. Tea making is both an art and a science that is dependent on attention to detail and continuous improvement.

We are very deliberate and meticulous in our business practice. We continuously scan the environment and align our strategies to it, always maintaining a competitive edge in the market place by providing high quality tea products to our customers. In addition, we also develop partnerships that can be leveraged to achieve sustainable growth to our shareholders’ wealth and the well-being of other stakeholders.

We aim to process high quality tea through investment in modern state-of-the-art manufacturing systems. We ensure our factory runs efficiently so as to expand capacity in line with production trends.
Our staff constantly drive the process to make our tea the finest, by marrying sustainable agricultural and manufacturing practices to ensure that our quality is always above the rest.

Farm Operations

About 25% of the green leaf supplied to our factory comes from our nucleus estate. This consists of 324Ha of mature tea which ranges from old seedling teas to the modern clonal varieties that contributes to the optimal mix of quality and sustained production.
The art of growing tea has a rich heritage from years of experience where all agronomic activities employed are based on sound research and good husbandry practices that are reviewed periodically to keep up with the emerging technologies. All this is geared towards having productive tables that are plucked throughout the year giving the much needed quality raw material to the factory.

We maintain a highly skilled workforce which does the routine plucking of removing the two top most leaves and a bud where the concentrate of tea is found. After plucking, the leaves are transported to the factory within the shortest time possible to guarantee freshness that enable processing into high quality black CTC tea and orthodox teas.

Besides tea farming, Karirana also cultivates a variety of eucalyptus trees. These are a popular renewable source of energy, which is used in the factory for curing. In line with sustainable agricultural practices, the company maintains over 200 hectares of eucalyptus forest with the aim of being self-reliant in fuel wood supply.

Extension Services

Extension services operations was launched in 1998 to improve out growers’ productivity and support the small scale tea farmers in the neighbourhood.

The operations has over 500 small scale farmers and has greatly enhanced their production in terms of quantity and quality of green leaf through expert advice on crop husbandry and technical support. The Extension services operates a credit scheme for it’s registered out growers’ farmers, which enable them to conveniently access farm inputs at cost.

Karirana Tea Management Services (KTMS)

Karirana Tea management Services (KTMS) Limited, is a subsidiary of Karirana Estates Limited. It was incorporated in year 2000 to provide professional management services to tea farms and tea manufacturing factories within East Africa.. The company’s activities are coordinated from our head office in Karirana Estates, Limuru.

Tea Processing Factory

The factory is the processing centre of Karirana tea. It is here that the necessary processes of manufacturing Black CTC tea, Green Orthodox tea, and Purple Orthodox tea takes place. The processing unit can handle 100 tons of Greenleaf per day. The factory maintains a Food Safety Management System which is ISO 22000:2018 certified. This guarantees our customers a safe and quality product at all times. Due to its high quality, Karirana tea has found favor amongst buyers in all key markets both local and outside Kenya including Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Afghanistan, Sudan, the United States of America, and the Middle East.
The factory has undertaken numerous capacity and efficiency improvement projects over the last ten years. Recently, we installed a grid-tie solar power system to supplement its energy demand. This has greatly reduced the cost of energy.
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