Tate & Lyle Forms Global Food Ingredients Group

The Group will focus on marketing and maximising the profitability of Tate & Lyle’s current range of value added and functional food ingredients, as well as taking the Company into new ingredient areas and growth opportunities in the future.

Tate & Lyle has formed a new Global Food Ingredients Group responsible for global food ingredients marketing and growth opportunities.

The news comes as looming EU sugar reforms urge European sugar manufacturers to look to other areas of their businesses.

The Global Food Ingredients Group will be led by Mark White, currently Chief Executive of Sugars, Europe, who will assume the position of President, Global Food Ingredients from 1 October 2005. Fern Hudson at the company told FoodIngredientsFirst that the changes will begin from October until all operations of the ingredients business have been integrated by April 2007.

The integration would provide customers with one point of contact with the company, rather than for example a European and US division.

The company is considering growth through acquisitions, while the company is also looking at further growth through new ingredient development.

The Global Food Ingredients Group will focus on marketing and maximising the profitability of Tate & Lyle’s current range of value added and functional food ingredients, as well as taking the Company into new ingredient areas and growth opportunities in the future.

Products to be focused on in the new group will include higher margin products like polydextrose and crystalline fructose, rather than HFCS, while sucralose will be integrated at the end of the process.

This change to the structure and leadership of Tate & Lyle’s food and industrial ingredients businesses reflects the acceleration of the Group’s growth strategy and continuing commitment to delivering excellence in customer service.

“These changes will ensure that we are completely focused on meeting the needs of our customers and so drive further growth,” said Tate & Lyle Chief Executive, Iain Ferguson. “This is another step towards achieving our vision to be consistently first in renewable ingredients. 

Only by providing our customers with a first class service and by offering them distinctive propositions based on the combined knowledge, expertise and efforts of our sales, marketing, customer service, R&D and manufacturing teams, will we make Tate & Lyle their partner of choice across the world.

“The establishment of the Global Food Ingredients Group will enable us to focus on meeting the changing needs of our customers and to capture the exciting opportunities for our food and industrial ingredients businesses.  Working alongside our existing regional businesses, our Global Food Ingredients Group will make it possible to further develop and maximise our value added portfolio.“