Tilda

The story of Tilda is one of unbroken success. Tilda was the first company to bring Basmati to the Western World over 30 years ago and has become an international food brand selling in over 40 countries. The company started its business selling Basmati to the Asian community who immigrated to the UK in the late sixties and early seventies. To this day Tilda is by far the favourite Basmati brand within this discerning rice-eating community, who usually buy their rice in 10kg and 20kg bags.

With the rise in Indian food popularity it didn’t take long for the Tilda brand to secure distribution in major supermarkets and by the nineties Tilda had become supermarket brand leader in the rapidly growing Basmati rice market. This position has strengthened over recent years as more and more consumers have switched from ordinary long grain rice to Basmati. Tilda now has a 51%* share of this burgeoning market.

By the late eighties Tilda had outgrown its previous location and moved to its present site at Rainham on the Thames estuary. The location provides a perfect gateway for the rice barges to make their deliveries from overseas. By this time the Tilda brand was selling in many international markets including France, Germany, the Middle East and the USA. Today’s distinctive blue foil Tilda packaging was introduced in the late nineties and proved an instant success. In 2008 new- look packaging will be introduced, which will feature the Tilda Pure Basmati seed to plate story and align the Tilda Steamed Basmati packaging with the dry rice variants.

Basmati remains at the very heart of Tilda and the company is committed to only selecting the finest Basmati for all its products. Indeed, Tilda refuses to blend with inferior grains. Tilda Riceland, Tilda’s sister company based in the Basmati growing region in India, has for many years worked hand-in-hand with the Basmati farming community and taken on the mantle of guardianship of this precious grain. Tilda supports more than 10,000 independent farmers, each of whom are known by name, and provides free advice on the cultivation, propagation and harvesting of Basmati, enabling them to secure a fair price in the marketplaces or ‘mandis’. In fact, each year Tilda provides farmers with certified Pure Basmati seed at no profit. In its quest for the very best Basmati, Tilda employs the latest fingerprint technology and checks every batch of rice for purity.

To this day Tilda remains a family business employing some 200 people in the UK and is proud of its reputation for uncompromising quality and a commitment to sustaining the legendary status of Basmati and the Tilda Basmati brand worldwide.