Twinings is one of the world's most recognized tea brands, leaving its mark on the industry since its founding in 1706. But longevity in the beverage industry doesn't happen by accident; it takes continuous investment in the systems, processes, and partnerships that keep commercial operations running at a high level.

In this conversation, Lizzy, Finance Transformation Head at Twinings UK, shares how the company has leveraged an 11-year partnership with UpClear to build a fully integrated commercial system. She talks about how they've invested in initiatives to level up across departments, including trade promotion management, accruals, volume forecasting, and promotional analytics. Finally, she explores how deep integration and collaborative partnership have been central to their success.

Table of Contents

0:04 - What's your role and priorities at Twinings UK?

1:27 - Which departments use the Blue platform and how?

2:39 - How has your partnership with UpClear evolved over time?

4:24 - Where does the Blue platform help you with financial management and control?

6:45 - How would you describe your partnership with UpClear?

8:21 - What value have you gained from UpClear industry events?

10:25 - What advice would you give to someone in your position?

Inside Twinings UK's Approach to Operational Excellence

With over three centuries of heritage in the beverage industry, Twinings could hardly be considered an insurgent brand. But that doesn't stop the established tea house from continuously innovating on multiple fronts, from product development to trade promotions. 

Today, Twinings has expanded its presence to over 100 countries.  And in the UK, where it all began, the brand has continued to grow its lead. In 2019, Twinings overtook PG Tips to become the best-selling tea brand in the UK, a milestone driven not through high-quality products, but by a deliberate strategic pivot. 

Behind every new launch, promotion, and retailer negotiation are finance and commercial teams managing a complex web of trade spend, forecasting, and performance data. At Twinings — in the USA and UK — those teams rely on the BlueRGM platform— and the partnership behind it — as a crucial part of that equation. 

Even through significant internal transformation, including ERP migrations, new integrations, and an expanding product range, Twinings has found that the partnership and platform it invested in over a decade ago has only become more central to how the business operates. 

Driving Efficiency Through Connected Systems 

As a long-time international leader in the beverage industry, Twinings UK stands out for its commercial rigor and willingness to adapt to the changing landscape. From breaking into canned drinks to launching new channels that appeal to Gen Z, the brand has taken bold steps to secure and maintain its place as a leading tea manufacturer. 

Like in most high-performing consumer goods companies, underpinning this ambitious culture is a strong internal system to manage their complex workflows and data. 

Integration has been an imperative piece in that puzzle. “It has been transformational having that amount of integration and having one data source as the source of truth, rather than sort of making an industry about maintaining separate systems,” said Lizzy Walker, Finance Transformation Head at Twinings UK. 

Beyond just reducing friction day-to-day, building integrations has unlocked new capabilities and insights on a company level. “We're using BluePlanner not just for certain channels of the business — we're using it across every channel,” said Walker. “There isn't a customer that isn't in BluePlanner, which is great because it gives us massive visibility.” 

Because data from multiple sources — EPOS, ERP sales-in, promotional plans — flows into one place, Twinings can extract more from it. Their commercial and RGM teams use analytics to evaluate promotional performance. Finance tracks KPIs on spend and debt. Demand planning runs volume forecasts. And with an authority matrix embedded directly in the system, spend control is built into the workflow rather than managed separately— allowing teams to collaborate more easily.

Pursuing Continuous Improvement 

Twinings' approach to internal operations demonstrates that established doesn't have to mean archaic. Despite its leading position in the tea business since 1706, the company is always looking for new and better ways to operate, from ERP migration to machine learning initiatives. 

Through these undertakings, the team at Twinings leans on partnerships like that with UpClear to see complex projects through, without disruption to the business. When there's a major project in full swing, like the ERP migration, the teams meet on a weekly basis to check in on progress. So far, this has proven effective. "On the ERP project, the TPM workstream was called out as best in class because we had so little problems at go-live," said Walker. 

Building Partnerships You Can Rely On 

In a complex commercial environment, having a team you can count on is a crucial competitive advantage. But partnerships like Twinings and UpClear's aren't necessarily automatic. Over the 11 years that the companies have worked together, their collaboration has deepened. 

"One of the things that really works for us is probably how well we know each other,” said Lizzy. “We're working with the same people that we've worked with for a really long time.” 

That continuity has not just made it easier to work together day-to-day. It’s also helped push the teams to grow together over time. “If we have feedback, we always feel comfortable giving it to you guys, and vice versa,” said Walker. “Feedback is a gift, and it’s always good to have that two-way relationship.” 

This collaboration isn’t just confined to weekly meetings, as vital as those touch-bases can be. The Twinings team is also proactive in taking opportunities to see the UpClear team in person—whether that’s at industry trade shows or user conferences. 

“It's not only great to see the team in person rather than talking to a head on a screen... it's also great to talk to the other businesses,” said Walker. “It's always interesting to me how different businesses are using the system.” Lizzy and her team have also used some learnings from these sessions to guide their own roadmap. 

“At the moment, we’re looking at our OCR technology to leverage something that we heard about at one of those events,” Walker said. 

Lessons from Twinings 

Building best-in-class commercial systems isn't a one-time project. It's an ongoing investment— in technology, in processes, and in the relationships that help you navigate change. 

Twinings hasn't achieved their level of integration by spending the most on software or by tripling their team. Instead, they’ve focused on committing to a partnership, contributing to the product roadmap, and incrementally improving their systems year over year. The lesson, in Lizzy’s own words: integrate, integrate, integrate— and work collaboratively.