Tate & Lyle Plc is a British agribusiness company that has worldwide operations, formed from the merging of two sugar companies.

History

Tate & Lyle was formed when rival companies Abram Lyle and Sons and Henry Tate and Sons, both sugar refiners, entered a merger in 1921. Tate established his business in Liverpool in 1869, while Lyle established his sugar refining business in 1865 in Greenock, Scotland.

After the merger, Tate & Lyle became the largest refiner of sugar in the UK, refining about 50% of all the sugar in the country. In 1935, Tate & Lyle established FT-30. In 1949, the company introduced the brand Mr. Cube, which quickly became a household name. The Mr. Cube brand was printed on sugar packets, was promoted to the press and was toured all around the country, together with the speakers that promoted the brand.

In 1963, Tate & Lyle was able to acquire United Molasses, which was originally named Marquis. With this acquisition, the company became a world leader in the molasses trade. In 1976, the company discovered a no-calorie sweetener and named it Sucralose. The discovery was made in concurrence with researchers from the Queen Elizabeth College in the London University. The newly discovered sweetener was then developed into a product by Tate & Lyle, in a joint project with Johnson & Johnson Company McNeil Nutritionals. The new product was introduced to the market as SPLENDA® Sucralose.

In 1976, Tate & Lyle acquired a third of Amylum. This was Tate & Lyle’s first venture into the area of starch-based manufacturing and cereal sweetener. Eventually, the company fully owned Amylum in the year 2000. In 1983, Tate & Lyle invested in Alcantara, a new sugar company based in Portugal.

In 1988, Tate & Lyle bought 90% of AE Staley Manufacturing Company. In 1998, the company was able to acquire Bayer AG’s subsidiary, Haarman & Reimer. With the acquisition, Tate & Lyle became a worldwide leader in the production of citric acid.

In 2004, the company entered into a partnership with DuPont in a joint project. The two companies produced a new kind of textile ingredient known as Bio-PDO™. Bio-PDO is a textile ingredient created from resources that are renewable.

In 2005, Tate & Lyle acquired Cesalpinia Foods, an Italian Company and a year after, it acquired CCI, or Continental Custom Ingredients. In June of 2011, Tate & Lyle became listed in the London Stock Exchange under the trade name TATE.

Headquarters: London,UK
Ownership Type: Public
Employees: 5,616 (as of 2010)
Geography: worldwide
Demography: food-manufacturing companies, foodservice operators

Brands

Splenda®, promitor®, Feed Them Better, Tate & Lyle

Important links

Tate & Lyle Corporate Home Page
Products
Jobs and Careers
Tate & Lyle Contact Information