FDBusiness.com

Although sales from continuing operations at £2.710 billion were 2% lower than the previous year, reflecting the impact of lower corn costs, Tate & Lyle, a leading global provider of food ingredients and solutions, has reported an 11% increase in adjusted profit before tax to £301 million for the year ended 31 March 2018. On a statutory basis, profit before tax from continuing operations increased by £53 million to £286 million.

Tate & Lyle operates two divisions – Primary Products and Food & Beverage Solutions (including Sucralose). Food & Beverage Solutions, which operates in the large and growing global food ingredients market, combines a deep understanding of sweetness, texture and fibre enrichment with expertise in key categories of beverages, dairy, and soups, sauces, and dressings, to tailor solutions for customers. These solutions help meet growing global consumer demand for food and drink with less sugar, calories and fat, and more fibre.

Primary Products is predominantly anchored in the more stable North American market, with strong market positions in high-volume sweeteners and industrial starches.

Nick Hampton.

During the last financial year, the Primary Products business achieved a 30% increase in profits to £166 million. Food & Beverage Solutions profits rose by 8% to £137 million, and Sucralose profits increased by 5% to £55 million.

Nick Hampton, chief executive of Tate & Lyle, comments: “Tate & Lyle delivered another year of progress, with good profit and cash delivery. Profit increased in all businesses, cash generation remained strong, and return on capital employed increased by 190 bps to 16.2%. The group remains in a strong financial position, increasingly well-positioned to address growing consumer demand for healthier diets with less sugar, calories and fat and more fibre. To accelerate business performance and inject more pace into the organisation, we are implementing three programmes to sharpen our focus on our customers, accelerate portfolio development and to simplify the business and deliver greater productivity.”

Accelerating portfolio development will be achieved through innovation, partnerships and acquisitions. Tate & Lyle aims to simplify the business and deliver US$100 million in productivity improvements over four years.

Tate & Lyle has just agreed to acquire a 15% equity holding in US-based Sweet Green Fields, one of the largest privately held, fully integrated global stevia ingredient companies. This builds on the agreement entered into by Tate & Lyle and Sweet Green Fields in April 2017 which saw Tate & Lyle become the exclusive global distributor of Sweet Green Fields’ portfolio of stevia-based ingredients.