Executives from all over its food business were in Kericho last week for a pow-wow entitled "Leveraging natural vitality into Lipton's". This all points to Unilever holding on to its tea estates - for now.However, there is another alternative. In Kenya, tea is picked by hand, with workers paid just 159 Kenyan shillings (about £1.55) a day for back-breaking work (though Brooke Bond argues that social benefits are worth 50 per cent on top of the basic wage). But in Argentina, Australia and a host of other tea-growing countries, they use harvesting machines that do the work of up to 350 pickers.Mr Fairburn admits that mechanisation could increase Brooke Bond's profits by £300 a hectare, or nearly £3.5m a year, but says: "We are not going to introduce full mechanisation into Kenya because of the social consequences."His boss, Unilever co-chairman, Antony Burgmans, is not so sure. When visiting Brooke Bond last week, he said: "At this moment, mechanisation in tea is not an issue. But if it is a rule-breaking change that transforms economic viability then we have to look at it."Mr Fairburn believes there could be a halfway house.
Brooke Bond is looking at handheld pickers, which are a little like hedge trimmers. The company might sell the machines to tea pickers, lending them the money so they can, in Mr Fairburn's words, "set up their own small businesses".In this way, maybe, Unilever can start making a good return on tea growing again while sticking to its principles.. Adam Crozier, the new chief executive of Royal Mail, has quietly removed three of the postal group's most senior executives. Their departures, after they recently gave up some of their employment rights and signed new contracts, could lead to an embarrassing legal row.
Mr Linsell was also behind the decision to get rid of the mail train, moving the long-distance transportation of the post on to trucks.Their departures come as Royal Mail is facing a serious strike in a dispute over pay and productivity. The Communication Workers Union balloted its 160,000 members on Friday, with a result due to be announced by the middle of next month.The removal of the three directors could also lead to legal action. Under reforms pushed through by the Royal Mail chairman, Allan Leighton, last year, all three signed new contracts that restricted their pay-offs to one year in the event of their departure and stopped them taking early retirement, by saying they could not draw on their pensions until they were 60.It is understood that they have been advised that, because of the short time between them signing the new contracts and their ousting, they may have a claim against Royal Mail for bad faith."Some of the directors are said to be 'livid'," said a well-placed source.Royal Mail said it would not comment on contractual issues.Meanwhile, Royal Mail will go head-to-head with courier companies TNT, Business Post and UPS tomorrow by launching a guaranteed 9am- next-day delivery service. "We believe that there is potential to grab a quarter to a third of the market in two to three years," said Ross Drake, the product manager for Special Delivery. "If the service meets full expectations", it would generate £50m to £100m in extra turnover, he added.. The dispute, which flared up in July, in the middle of the holiday season, ended up costing BA some £40m in lost revenue - as well as untold harm to its reputation.Though the strike was unofficial, BA suspected that turf wars were an issue among the three unions representing BA ground staff - the GMB, the Transport and General Workers' Union and Amicus.Mr Curran, who was elected only in July and was seen by many as a left-wing firebrand, stepped in and helped to persuade the GMB staff to accept a settlement, which allowed the introduction of swipe cards in exchange for a pay increase.Mr Eddington then wrote to Mr Curran to thank him.
