Hampshire, England-based Ahmad Tea has won the 2026 Grocer Gold Award for Social Impact Initiative of the Year, recognising the success of its Hand-Picked Profit Shared programme, which returns a share of company profits directly to the workers who harvest its tea.

Organised by The Grocer, the UK’s leading food and drink trade publication, the Grocer Gold Awards are among the UK’s most respected FMCG awards. Judged by an independent panel of industry experts, they celebrate businesses that demonstrate excellence, leadership and positive impact across the grocery sector.

The Social Impact Initiative of the Year category recognises programmes that deliver real, measurable benefits for people and communities with long-term impact. Ahmad Tea was selected ahead of fellow finalists including Asda, Lidl GB and Tesco in recognition of the ambition and results of its Hand-Picked Profit Shared programme.

Tea picking remains one of the lowest-paid roles in the tea industry, with women making up the majority of the workforce in many tea-growing regions. Through Hand Picked Profit Shared, Ahmad Tea returns a share of its profits directly to tea workers through annual digital bonus payments, helping narrow income gaps and ensuring more of the value created by tea reaches the people who produce it.
The programme also promotes greater financial and digital inclusion by enabling tea workers to open their own bank accounts, receive secure digital payments and develop digital literacy. By moving away from cash-based systems, it increases transparency while strengthening financial independence, particularly for women.

“Winning this award is wonderful recognition of everyone who has helped bring Hand Picked Profit Shared to life. I’d like to extend my sincerest thanks to our tea suppliers for embracing a new way of working and helping provide tea workers with the bank accounts and digital infrastructure needed to receive these bonuses,” said Zahra Afshar, head of sustainability at Ahmad Tea. “Most importantly, thank you to the women whose skill, dedication and hard work make every cup of Ahmad Tea possible. Their commitment to the craft of hand-picking tea, not only helps provide a brighter future for their families but also sustains the global tea industry. This award is as much theirs as it is ours.”

The judges praised the initiative for addressing one of the tea industry’s most persistent challenges through practical, measurable action. One judge described Hand Picked Profit Shared as “a great initiative that’s delved into the problem in great depth and helped at-risk people in some of the poorest countries in the world.”

Another judge commented that “digital payments transform work in developing countries – this is very empowering and life-changing for women. Love it.”

In 2024, the programme’s first year, 6,734 tea pickers received a profit-sharing bonus, helping to close the average living wage gap by around half. In 2025, the initiative almost doubled its reach, with 12,242 tea pickers receiving an increased bonus compared with the previous year, extending its positive impact across tea-growing communities.

Hand Picked Profit Shared forms part of Ahmad Tea’s wider sustainability platform, Infused with Impact, which brings together the company’s work to create lasting, positive change across its tea supply chain and beyond.

For Ahmad Tea, the award reinforces the company’s long-standing belief that exceptional tea depends on strong, respectful relationships throughout the supply chain. As consumers increasingly seek products that combine outstanding quality with meaningful social impact, Hand Picked Profit Shared demonstrates that every purchase can contribute to a fairer and more sustainable tea industry.