Tate & Lyle
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| Type | Public (LSE: TATE) |
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| Founded | Merger of Henry Tate & Sons and Abram Lyle & Sons in 1921 |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
| Key people | Sir Peter Gershon, Chairman Javed Ahmed, CEO |
| Industry | Food Processing |
| Products | Sugar Starches Splenda Alcohol Citric Acid HFCS |
| Revenue | £3,424 million (2008) |
| Operating income | £215 million (2008) |
| Net income | £187 million (2008) |
| Employees | 6,488 (2008) |
| Website | www.tateandlyle.com |
Tate & Lyle plc (LSE: TATE) is a UK-based multinational agri-processor. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index as of 23 March 2009.[1]
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[edit] History
The company was formed in 1921 from a merger of two rival sugar refiners, Henry Tate & Sons and Abram Lyle & Sons.[2]
Henry Tate established his business in 1869 in Liverpool, later expanding to Silvertown, London:[2] 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 refining in 1865 in Greenock, western Scotland and then in Plaistow, London.[2] 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.
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.[2] In 1976 the Company acquired a 33% stake (increased to 63% in 1988) in Amylum, a European starch-based manufacturing business.[2]
In 1988 it acquired A. E. Staley, a US corn processing business[2] and in 1988 it bought Haarmann & Reimer, a citric acid producer.[2]
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.[2]
In 2005, DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts was created as a joint venture between DuPont and Tate & Lyle. [3]
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.[4]
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. [5]
In April 2009 the International Trade Commission affirmed a ruling that Chinese manufacturers can make copycat versions of its Splenda product.[6]
[edit] Operations
The Company operates over 50 production facilities and is organised as follows:[7]
- A. E. Staley: processes corn (maize) into a range of end products including food and industrial starches, ethanol, fibres and other animal feed and food ingredients. The operations are mostly in Decatur and Lafayette: the Company is building a new corn wet mill in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
- Sugars: imports raw sugar from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific countries and converts it into pure sugar at various facilities including the Thames Refinery in London and in Lisbon in Portugal.
[edit] Trademark and Brand
The company is renowned for its refined sugar cane products, especially Lyle's Golden Syrup, its brand of partially inverted refiners syrup. The Lyle's Golden Syrup trademark (also used on other products) depicts a lion and a swarm of bees, as well as a partial quotation from the Bible. In the Book of Judges, Chapter 14, Samson was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion, and on his return past the same spot he noticed that a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle at a wedding: "Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness." The last seven words still appear on tins of Golden Syrup. Abraham Lyle was a deeply religious man and may have intended to refer to the strength of the company or to the strength of the tin. The design of the tin has remained almost unchanged since 1885.
According to a news report, the Guinness Book of Records has concluded that the design of the tin, which has remained almost unchanged since 1885, forms Britain's oldest brand.[8] In the red tin is the Partner of Golden Syrup - Black Treacle (dark molasses).
[edit] Criticisms and controversies
In 2005, The U.S. sugar industry claimed against Tate & Lyle that the advertising of Splenda was deceptive and filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Taking issue with Splenda's advertising slogan “made from sugar so it tastes like sugar,” the Sugar Association stated that: "Splenda was not a natural product. It is not cultivated or grown and it does not occur in nature." McNeil Nutritionals, the manufacturer of Splenda responded that its "advertising represents the products in an accurate and informative manner and complies with applicable advertising rules in the countries where Splenda brand products are marketed." The consumer advocacy group Citizens for Health also filed a petition with the FDA. They have asked the FDA to withdraw its approval of Splenda pending additional investigation of claimed side effects such as stomach pain and other digestion problems. [9]
[edit] See also
- A. E. Staley - US owned subsidiary.
- Redpath Sugar - Canadian owned subsidiary.
- Western Sugar Cooperative - US owned subsidiary
- Splenda - sucralose, a key product for the Group
[edit] References
- ^ "FTSE UK Index Series Quarterly Review March 2009". FTSE Group. 11 March 2009. http://www.ftse.com/tech_notices/2009/Q1/21110_20090311_FTSE_UK_Review_Mar_2009.jsp. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Tate & Lyle: History
- ^ DuPont and Tate & Lyle to Open $100 Million Bioproducts Plant
- ^ Tate & Lyle: Industrial ingredients
- ^ "Tate & Lyle sugar to be Fairtrade". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7260211.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
- ^ Sweet Surrender: Bingham Wins ITC Sugar Substitute Case - AMLaw - April 08, 2009
- ^ Tate & Lyle: Annual Report 2008
- ^ Sweet success for oldest brand
- ^ Dangers of splenda - British research on sucralose toxicity
[edit] 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
[edit] External links
- Tate & Lyle corporate website
- Online archive from the National Monuments Record Use Advanced Search/Collections/Tate & Lyle to view of a series of photographs documenting the construction of the Tate & Lyle sugar silo at Huskisson Dock, Liverpool, in the 1950s.
- Biography of Carl I. Hagen by the Norwegian parliament (Storting)
- The history of sugar in Liverpool and the effects of the closure of the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery.
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