T2 Tea, the Australian premium tea brand, exited Singapore after 9 years

T2 Tea, the Australian premium tea brand founded in Melbourne in 1996, closed all three of its Singapore stores in March 2026 and exited the market after nine years. The brand's stores at VivoCity, 313@Somerset, and Suntec City shut down between March 20 and March 25, with clearance sales offering up to 30% off. A T2 spokesperson told AsiaOne the stores were closing indefinitely.

T2 Tea had been acquired by Unilever in 2013 for approximately A$60 million. In 2022, Unilever sold its entire tea business — including T2, along with Lipton and PG Tips — to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for €4.5 billion, creating a new entity called Lipton Teas and Infusions. Under CVC's ownership, T2 began a global retreat: it closed its UK and US stores in 2023, narrowing its focus to Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Singapore was T2's last remaining international market with physical stores after the 2023 closures. The brand had operated there since 2017, but the retail model proved unsustainable. Sources described the exit as part of a "strategic shift" amid broader financial pressures on international retailers in Singapore, which in 2025 recorded its highest level of business closures in eight years.

The exit reflected the difficulty of operating a premium single-market retail concept abroad at the scale of just three stores — without the volume to negotiate favorable leases or the marketing spend to build brand awareness against local competitors, T2's Singapore business could not reach profitability under a private equity owner focused on cost rationalization.