Global Tea, a leading UK-based tea distributor, has implemented Enigio’s trace: original digital envelope solution, significantly reducing the time required to process trade documentation.
The series of transactions, handled by Lloyds Bank in the UK under its Digital Documentary Collections product offering, marked the first instance where shipping giant Maersk issued its documentation using Enigio’s trace:original platform.
Prior to adopting the digital solution released last year, Global Tea relied on traditional paper-based methods to manage international trade documents. These methods required physical transport, manual signatures, and time-consuming verification. The shift to trace: original has enabled all required documents—including seaway bills and promissory notes—to be securely transferred within minutes.
Global Tea, which handles over 70 million kilograms of tea annually and employs over 4,000 people worldwide, has a particularly international supply chain. It has tea sourcing offices in Kenya, Malawi, and India, as well as packing operations in Kenya to pack for some of the largest names in the industry and macadamia plantations in Africa.
Rhodrick Kalumpha, group finance controller at Global Tea, noted that before implementing trace: original, “it could take up to a week to manage the documents required to complete international shipments. Now we do it in just a few minutes once a week, allowing us to meet deadlines with ease and improve our service to suppliers and logistics partners.”
Under the new system, Global Tea digitises and places necessary trade documents, including originals issued by Maersk, into the trace:original digital envelope once a week and transfers them to Lloyds for verification and secure holding. The bank then arranges for a digital promissory note to be issued (again, via trace:original), enabling the collection of goods.
Alex Waites, Executive Director at Enigio, described that businesses can “replace slow, manual, paper-based systems with a modern, efficient solution that enhances every part of the trade flow”.
Jon Boran, Head of Future Trade Products at Lloyds, said, “Moving to an entirely digital process has significantly reduced the time it takes for Global Tea to complete a trade transaction—safely and securely—allowing them to trade more efficiently on a global scale.”
Lars Karlsson, Global Head of Trade & Customs Consulting at Maersk, summarised how this system benefits logistics providers too: “There’s no waiting for documents to catch up.”
