Tate & Lyle

Tate and Lyle PLC

Type	Public (LSE: TATE)
Industry	Food processing
Founded	Merger of Henry Tate & Sons and Abram Lyle & Sons in 1921
Headquarters	London, England, United Kingdom
Key people	Sir Peter Gershon, Chairman Javed Ahmed, CEO
Products	Starches Splenda Alcohol Citric Acid High Fructose Corn Syrup
Revenue	£3,506 million (2010)[1]
Operating income	£8 million (2010)[1]
Net income	£19 million (2010)[1]
Employees	5,616 (2010)[2]
Website	www.tateandlyle.com

Tate & Lyle plc (LSE: TATE) is a British-based multinational agribusiness. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index as of 20 June 2011. On 1 July 2010, its iconic sugar refining and golden syrup business was sold to American Sugar Refining.

History

The company was formed in 1921 from a merger of two rival sugar refiners, Henry Tate & Sons and Abram Lyle & Sons.^[3]

Henry Tate established his business in 1869 in Liverpool, later expanding to Silvertown, London:^[3] he used his industrial fortune to found the Tate Gallery in London in 1897. Abram Lyle, a cooper and shipowner, acquired an interest in sugar refinery in 1865 in Greenock, western Scotland and then in Plaistow, London.^[3] The two companies had large factories nearby each other — Henry Tate in Silvertown and Abram Lyle in Plaistow — so prompting the merger. The Liverpool plant closed in 1981. The Greenock plant closed during the 1990s. The Plaistow and Silvertown plants were sold to American Sugar Refining in 2010.

In 1949 the Company introduced its "Mr Cube" brand, as part of a marketing campaign to help it fight a proposed nationalization by the Labour government.^[3] In 1976 the Company acquired a 33% stake (increased to 63% in 1988) in Amylum, a European starch-based manufacturing business.^[3]

In 1988 it acquired a 90% stake in A. E. Staley, a US corn processing business and in 1998 it brought Haarmann & Reimer, a citric acid producer; in 2000 it acquired the remaining minorities of Amylum and A. E. Staley.^[3]

In 2004 it established a joint venture with DuPont to manufacture a renewable 1,3-Propanediol that can be used to make Sorona (a substitute for nylon) is its first major foray into bio-materials.^[3]

In 2005, DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts was created as a joint venture between DuPont and Tate & Lyle.^[4]

In 2006 it acquired Hycail, a small Dutch business, giving the Company intellectual property and a pilot plant to manufacture Polylactic acid (PLA), another bio-plastic.^[5] Tate &Lyle has discontinued their PLA activities and closed the Hycail plant in 2008.

In October 2007 five European starch and alcohol plants, previous part of the European starch division knowns as Amylum group, were sold to Syral, a subsidiary of French sugar company Tereos.^[6] Syral has since closed the Greenwich plant, which is currently being demolished.

In February 2008, it was announced that Tate & Lyle granulated white cane sugar would be accredited as a Fairtrade product, with all the company's other retail products to follow in 2009.^[7]

In April 2009 the International Trade Commission affirmed a ruling that Chinese manufacturers can make copycat versions of its Splenda product.^[8]

Javed Ahmed became CEO on 1 October 2009, replacing Iain Ferguson.^[9] In July 2010 the company announced the sale of its sugar refining business, including rights to use the Tate & Lyle brand name and Lyle's Golden Syrup, to American Sugar Refining for £211 million.^[10]

Operations

The Company is organised as follows:^[11]

• Speciality Food Ingredients
  • sweeteners, such as Splenda sucralose and crystalline fructose
  • texturants, such as starch and gums
  • wellness ingredients, such as dietary fibers
• Bulk Ingredients - such as high fructose corn syrup, acidulants etc

See also

• A. E. Staley - US owned subsidiary.
• Splenda - sucralose, a key product for the Group

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Annual Report 2010
2. ^ Tate & Lyle: careers
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Tate & Lyle: History
4. ^ DuPont and Tate & Lyle to Open $100 Million Bioproducts Plant
5. ^ Tate & Lyle: Industrial ingredients
6. ^ "Tereos starch subsidiary Syral finalises the acquisition of 5 Tate & Lyle Plants". Syral. http://www.syral.com/web/syral_web.nsf/Doc/PR_011007/$File/SYRAL_Press_release_011007.pdf?openelement. Retrieved 2010-01-14. 
7. ^ "Tate & Lyle sugar to be Fairtrade". BBC News. February 23, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7260211.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
8. ^ Sweet Surrender: Bingham Wins ITC Sugar Substitute Case - AMLaw - April 08, 2009
9. ^ "Tate & Lyle (LSE: TATE LN): New CEO Takes Helm," Jefferies International Ltd., 2 October 2009
10. ^ Tate & Lyle sells sugar arm to American Sugar Refining BBC News, 1 July 2010
11. ^ Tate & Lyle: Our Structure

Further reading

• Sugar and All That... A History of TATE & LYLE by Antony Hugill (Gentry Books, 1978) ISBN 0856140481
• Tate & Lyle PLC and Ferruzzi Finanziaria SpA and S & W Berisford PLC, 1987 Competition Commission report
• Tate & Lyle PLC and British Sugar plc, 1991 Competition Commission report

External links

• Tate & Lyle corporate website
• The history of sugar in Liverpool and the effects of the closure of the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery.
• The house of William Park Lyle, son of Abram Lyle, has had a multi million makeover.