
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
You are viewing the World Edition
Choose the news you want to read
View the site in World Edition, North American News Edition
European News Edition or Asia Pacific News Edition

View full financial data |
Our Business Overview
Tate & Lyle is a world-leading manufacturer of renewable food and industrial ingredients. All our ingredients are produced from renewable crops, predominantly corn (maize), wheat and sugar cane. We take these renewable crops and transform them through the use of innovative technology into value added ingredients for our food, beverage and industrial customers.
Backed by a strong and growing research organisation, Tate & Lyle's ingredients help add taste, texture, nutrition and increased functionality to everyday products used by millions of people around the world.
Tate & Lyle was founded in the UK in 1921 but its roots can be traced back to a number of companies established in the middle of the 19th century focused on sugars in Europe, wheat and corn milling in Europe and corn milling in the US. 2006 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of our US corn milling business.
Vision
Tate & Lyle's vision is that we will grow by uniting our businesses and developing partnerships to create the world's leading renewable ingredients business. We will build a consistent portfolio of distinctive, profitable, high-value solutions in products and services for our customers.
Operations
Tate & Lyle is headquartered in the UK and is a global company currently operating more than 60 production facilities in 24 countries mainly throughout Europe, the Americas and South East Asia. At 31 March 2007, we employed 6,900 people in our subsidiaries with a further 2,300 employed in joint ventures.
During the year ended 31 March 2007, the Group operated through five business divisions:

We provide customers in a number of industries with a range of distinctive, high-quality ingredients made from corn, sugar or wheat. We also create unique formulations that solve problems for our customers, providing value beyond the basic ingredients. Here we set out the key markets we serve, with examples of the products and services we offer.
Our products and services include:
Cereal sweeteners and starches
We are one of the leading producers of cereal sweeteners and starches in the world. This aspect of our business involves the production and marketing of ingredients produced from corn and wheat for the food and industrial sectors.
Cereal sweeteners
Our corn sweeteners, such as high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup, fructose, dextrose and maltodextrins, are widely employed in the production of soft drinks and as feedstocks in the brewing and fermentation industry.
Starches
Our functional value added food starches add texture and body to food and are also used to bind together ingredients, offering stability and moisture retention. Our starches can improve the shelf-life of processed foods and snacks and are used to produce the texture and other quality features of consumer products such as chewing gum, cosmetics, toothpaste and pharmaceutical applications. We are also a key player in the production of non-food starches for industrial markets. We supply textile, paper, corrugated board and plasterboard manufacturers and the building industry with industrial starches. In the paper industry, native and speciality starches are used to increase dry paper strength and improve surface conditions.
Speciality starches are used to bond the different layers of paper in the manufacture of corrugated board. Starches are used in adhesive and building product applications, and in the textile industry to increase weaving efficiencies.
Sugar and related products
We are a leading producer of sugar for industrial customers and for retail sale. We also produce value added and consumer-branded products such as Tate & Lyle Sugar, Lyle's Golden Syrup and Sidul (one of Portugal's leading sugar brands).
Cane sugar
Refined sugar, syrups and treacles are used to provide natural sweetness, texture, colour and flavour across a full range of food and drink applications. We are the largest cane sugar refiner in the EU, producing over 1.3 million tonnes of cane sugar per annum from our refineries in London, England, and Lisbon, Portugal. We are a leading retail brand in the UK where we supply a full range of retail and domestic sugars as well as more specialised products including Lyle's Golden Syrup. We operate a cane sugar refinery in Vietnam and a joint venture in Mexico, which supply customers in those regions. As well as refining sugar, our global trading operation purchases and trades sugar in markets across the world.
Molasses
Molasses is a versatile by-product of sugar production. It offers various benefits as an animal feed and as a raw material for fermentation. It is also used in a diverse range of other industrial processes. We have been able to leverage our position as a leading sugar manufacturer to become a market leader in the international trading, distribution and storage of molasses. We have developed the expertise we gained from storing molasses to establish an ancillary business of storing other commodities for our customers in bulk liquid storage facilities around the world.
SPLENDA® Sucralose
SPLENDA® Sucralose is a no-calorie, high-intensity sweetener that is made from sugar. SPLENDA® Sucralose offers the taste of sugar without the calories. As a food ingredient, its unique stability means that products using SPLENDA® Sucralose will retain their sweetness over time, helping to preserve the optimal balance of sweetness and flavour. SPLENDA® Sucralose can be used successfully in high-temperature processing, such as sterilisation, pasteurisation, canning and extrusion. It is used today to sweeten more than 4,000 foods and beverages worldwide.
Acidulants, alcohol, polyols and proteins
Acidulants
From a base of sugar, dextrose or molasses, we produce acidulants such as citric acid, fumaric acid, malic acid, potassium citrate and sodium citrate. Citric acid is used to enhance flavour and preserve a wide range of foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals. It is also widely used as a natural cleaning agent in detergents.
Alcohol
We have expanded our product offering by using the raw ingredients of corn, wheat and sugar to become a producer and distributor of a range of alcohol products. These are used in the manufacture of beverages and vinegar, as well as in industrial products such as paint. We also produce ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline and used as a fuel.
Polyols
Polyols such as sorbitol are used by both food and pharmaceutical companies to sweeten and retain moisture and can be found in chewing gum and toothpaste.
Proteins
In addition to starches and sweeteners, the processing of corn and wheat produces proteins. Wheat proteins such as vital wheat gluten and soluble wheat proteins can be employed in a variety of food and animal feed products to provide valuable functional and nutritional benefits.
Biogums
We produce biogums, such as xanthan gum, used by the food industry to provide texture and viscosity to sauces and dressings and as low-calorie fat replacers and stabilisers. Our STANZAN X® industrial-grade xanthan gum is used in the oil-well drilling industry as a lubricant and coolant. Our gum range was expanded through the acquisition of Cesalpinia Food in December 2005 to include locust bean and guar gums.
Advanced bio-materials
Bio-PDO™, an innovative monomer made from corn by DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts, became commercially available in 2006. It is used by DuPont to produce Sorona® which has a wide range of textile applications from swimwear to carpets. Bio-PDO™ can also be used in a variety of direct applications such as cosmetics and de-icing fluids.
| Sir David Lees | Non-Executive Chairman |
| Group Management Committee | |
| Executive Directors: | |
| Iain Ferguson | Chief Executive |
| Stanley Musesengwa | Chief Operating Officer |
| John Nicholas | Group Finance Director |
| Stuart Strathdee | Corporate Development Director |
| Robert Gibber | Company Secretary and General Counsel |
| Corry Will | Group Human Resources Director |
| Senior Operational Management | |
| Clive Rutherford | Chief Executive, Food & Industrial Ingredients, Europe |
| D. Lynn Grider | President, Food & Industrial Ingredients, Americas |
| Ian Bacon | Chief Executive, Sugars, Europe |
| Mark White | President, Global Food Ingredients Group |
| Pat Mohan | President, Support and Efficiency Services |
| Loren Luppes | Group President, Manufacturing and Technology |
| Dr. Robert Fisher | Head of Global Research and Development |
| Austin Maguire | President, Sucralose |
| Non-executive Directors | |
| Richard Delbridge | Senior Independent Non-executive Director |
| Evert Henkes | Non-executive Director |
| Kai Nargolwala | Non-executive Director |
| Dr Barry Zoumas | Non-executive Director |
| Robert Walker | Non-executive Director |
| Liz Airey | Non-executive Director |
Company AddressTate & Lyle PLCHead Office - Corporate and Investor Relations, Company Secretariat, Treasury, FinanceSugar QuayLower Thames Street
|
Additional Address/Key ContactContact: Mark Robinson, Head of Investor Relations |
CapitalAs at 31 August 2007, the number of Tate & Lyle PLC shares in issue was 483,592,610. |
Annual General MeetingJuly | Year End31 March |