Tate & Lyle#Sugar refining

File:2018 LCY, aerial view of Tate & Lyle, Silvertown (cropped).jpg, London]]

The company was incorporated in 1903 as Henry Tate & Sons (1903) Limited. In 1921, from a merger of two rival sugar refiners: Henry Tate & Sons and Abram Lyle & Sons,{{cite web|url=http://www.tateandlyle.co.uk/TateAndLyle/our_business/history/history_timeline.htm|title=Tate & Lyle Home}} the company was renamed to Tate & Lyle, Limited.

Henry Tate established his business in 1859, in Liverpool, later expanding to Silvertown in East London. He used his industrial fortune to found the Tate Institute in Silvertown in 1887, and the Tate Gallery in Pimlico, Central London in 1897. He endowed the gallery with his own collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.The River Thames from Hampton Court to the Millennium Dome (1999) {{ISBN|1-86011-701-5}}

Abram Lyle, a cooper and shipowner, acquired an interest in a sugar refinery in 1865, in Greenock and then at Plaistow Wharf, West Silvertown, London. The two companies had large factories nearby each other – Henry Tate in Silvertown and Abram Lyle at Plaistow Wharf – so prompting the merger. Prior to the merger, which occurred after they had died, the two men were bitter business rivals, although they had never met in person.{{cite book|author=Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi|publisher=Collins|title=The Sugar Girls|isbn=978-0-00-744847-0|year=2012|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sugargirlstaleso0000barr}} In 1949, the company introduced its "Mr Cube" brand, as part of a marketing campaign to help it fight a proposed nationalisation by the Labour government.

In 1888 Lyle's Golden Syrup introduced a logo of a dead lion surrounded by a swarm of bees, illustrating a biblical story, with the quotation "out of the strong came forth sweetness".{{cite web | title=Lyle's Golden Syrup tin (image)| publisher=Lyle's Golden Syrup| url=https://www.lylesgoldensyrup.com/product/tin/ | access-date=20 February 2024}} The logo, which holds the Guinness World Record for the world's oldest unchanged brand packaging, was kept for most products until 2024, when it was replaced with a lion's head and a single bee. The original logo was maintained for Lyle's Golden Syrup tins.{{cite news| title=Tate & Lyle's Golden Syrup rebrand drops dead lion | website=BBC News | date=20 February 2024 | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68347249}}

From 1973, British membership of the European Economic Community threatened Tate & Lyle's core business, with quotas imposed from Brussels favouring domestic sugar beet producers over imported cane refiners such as Tate & Lyle.{{cite news|title=Sir Saxon Tate, Bt|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/9523685/Sir-Saxon-Tate-Bt.html|access-date=25 August 2016|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=5 September 2012}} As a result, under the joint leadership of John O. Lyle and Saxon Tate (direct descendants of Abram Lyle and Henry Tate respectively), the company began to diversify into related fields of commodity trading, transport and engineering, and in 1976, it acquired competing cane sugar refiner Manbré & Garton.

In 1976, the company acquired a 33% stake (increased to 63% in 1988) in Amylum, a European starch-based manufacturing business. The Liverpool sugar plant closed in 1981, and the Greenock plant closed in 1997.{{cite web|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12095899.Tate__amp__Lyle_plans_end_of_250_year_Scots_link_with_switch_to_London_plant___Bitter_blow_from_sugar_firm/|title=Tate & Lyle plans end of 250-year Scots link with switch to London plant. Bitter blow from sugar firm|date=21 July 1995|work=The Herald|location=Glasgow|access-date=28 April 2017}} In 1988, Tate & Lyle acquired a 90% stake in A. E. Staley, a US corn processing business. In 1998 it brought Haarmann & Reimer, a citric acid producer. In 2000, it acquired the remaining minorities of Amylum and A. E. Staley.

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). This was its first major foray into bio-materials. In 2005, DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts was created as a joint venture between DuPont and Tate & Lyle.{{cite web|url=http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2005/09/08/dupont-and-tate-lyle-open-100-million-bioproducts-plant|title=DuPont and Tate & Lyle to Open $100 Million Bioproducts Plant|work=GreenBiz|access-date=3 April 2015}} In 2006, it acquired Hycail, a small Dutch business, giving the company intellectual property and a pilot plant to manufacture Polylactic acid (PLA), another bio-plastic.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uaZl2ZZ1JuAC&q=tate+and+lyle+Polylactic+acid&pg=PA31|title=Polylactic Acid: PLA Biopolymer Technology and Applications|first1= Lee Tin |last1=Sin|first2= Abdul Razak |last2=Rahmat|first3=W. A. W. A. |last3=Rahman|publisher=William Andrew|year=2012|isbn=978-1437744590}} In October 2007, five European starch and alcohol plants, previously part of the European starch division known as Amylum group, were sold to Syral, a subsidiary of French sugar company Tereos.{{Cite web |url=http://www.syral.com/web/syral_web.nsf/Doc/PR_011007/$File/SYRAL_Press_release_011007.pdf?openelement |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081113012444/http://www.syral.com/web/syral_web.nsf/Doc/PR_011007/$File/SYRAL_Press_release_011007.pdf?openelement |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 November 2008 |title=Tereos starch subsidiary Syral finalises the acquisition of 5 Tate & Lyle Plants |publisher=Syral |access-date=14 January 2010 }} Syral closed its Greenwich Peninsula plant in London in September 2009, and it was subsequently demolished.{{cite web|title=Farewell, Tunnel Refineries|url=https://853blog.com/2010/08/16/farewell-tunnel-refineries/|website=853: News, views and issues around Greenwich, Charlton, Blackheath and Woolwich, south-east London|access-date=4 September 2016}}

In 2006, Lyle's Golden Syrup tin was awarded a Guinness World Record as the world's oldest branding.{{Cite web|url=https://www.royaldocks.london/articles/a-history-of-tate-lyle-told-in-cake|title=A history of Tate & Lyle told in cake|website=The Royal Docks|language=en|access-date=2020-04-02}}

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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.{{Cite news

| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7260211.stm

| title=Tate & Lyle sugar to be Fairtrade

| publisher= BBC News

| access-date=23 February 2008

| date=23 February 2008

}}

In April 2009, the United States International Trade Commission affirmed a ruling that Chinese manufacturers can make copycat versions of its Splenda product.{{cite web|url=http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/digestTAL.jsp?id=1202429752537|title=Sweet Surrender: Bingham Wins ITC Sugar Substitute Case|author=Alison Frankel|work=Litigation Daily|access-date=3 April 2015}}

In 2021, Tate & Lyle ranked fourth in the Modified Starch category of FoodTalks' Global Food Thickener Companies list.{{Cite web|last1=Fu|first1=Rice|last2=Zhao|first2=Viola|date=2021-09-10|title=2021年全球食用增稠剂企业榜|trans-title=Global Food Thickener Companies List|url=https://www.foodtalks.cn/news/foodnews/top_100/6927|access-date=2022-02-20|language=zh}}

In May 2022, it was announced that Tate & Lyle had acquired Nutriati, an ingredient technology company developing and producing chickpea protein and flour.{{Cite web |title=Tate & Lyle acquires developer and producer of plant-based protein |url=https://www.foodanddrinktechnology.com/news/41671/tate-lyle-acquires-developer-and-producer-of-plant-based-protein/ |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=Food and Drink Technology |language=en}}

In July 2010, the company announced the sale of its sugar refining business, including rights to use the Tate & Lyle brand name and Lyle's Golden Syrup, to American Sugar Refining (owned by sugar barons the Fanjul brothers) for £211 million. The sale included the Plaistow Wharf and Silvertown plants.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10472258 Tate & Lyle sells sugar arm to American Sugar Refining] BBC News, 1 July 2010 The new owners pledged that there would be no job losses as a result of the transaction.{{Cite news|last1=Finch|first1=Julia|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jul/01/tate-lyle-sale-sugar-business|title=Tate & Lyle agrees sale of historic sugar business for £211m|date=2010-07-01|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-02|last2=Wray|first2=Richard|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

In 2012, HarperCollins published The Sugar Girls, a work of narrative non-fiction based on the true stories of women who worked at Tate & Lyle's two factories in the East End of London from the 1940s to the 1960s.{{cite news |title=Sweet! Tate & Lyle lives celebrated|newspaper=Newham Recorder|author=Matt Nicholls|date=23 February 2011}} A follow up book, The Sugar Girls of Love Lane, released in 2024, was centered on the women who worked at the Liverpool factory.{{cite news |title= Liverpool's 'sugar girls' and the lost factory where workers 'loved every minute' |url= https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/liverpools-sugar-girls-lost-factory-29043735 |newspaper=The Liverpool Echo |date=28 April 2024 |access-date=29 April 2024}}

Nick Hampton became CEO on 1 April 2018, replacing Javed Ahmed, who stepped down from this role and from the board, and retired from the company.{{cite web|url=http://www.tateandlyle.com/news/nick-hampton-appointed-chief-executive-tate-lyle-plc| title=Nick Hampton Appointed CEO |work=Tate & Lyle Press Release |date=16 January 2018 |access-date=21 January 2018}}

Tate & Lyle has developed a method to commercially produce the natural sweetener allulose. It emerged in August 2019 that the company was seeking to take advantage of the 2019 permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to not list the product in total sugar or as an added sugar in commercial food ingredients.{{Cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-allulose-sugar-substitute-20190822-ayfcmkmol5a33jziuoguubrt7i-story.html |title=A natural sweetener with a tenth of sugar's calories. Allulose, developed in Hoffman Estates, could be 'breakthrough ingredient.' |last=Elejalde-Ruiz |first=Alexia |date=August 22, 2019 |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=2019-08-25}}

In July 2021, Tate & Lyle announced it was spinning off Tate & Lyle Primary Products (formerly, A. E. Staley) into a new company to be known as Primary Products Ingredients Americas LLC (Primient). Tate & Lyle will maintain 50% ownership of Primient and the remaining 50% will be owned by KPS Capital Partners (including board and management control). The transaction was completed in April 2022.{{cite web|url=https://www.tateandlyle.com/news/completion-sale-controlling-stake-tate-lyles-primary-products-business-kps-capital-partners-lp|title=KPS Capital Partners To Acquire Controlling Stake In Tate & Lyle's Primary Products Business In North America And Latin America|first=|last=|work=Tate & Lyle PLC|date=April 1, 2022|access-date=April 1, 2022}}

In June 2022, it was announced that Tate & Lyle had completed the acquisition of Quantum Hi-Tech (Guangdong) Biological Co., Ltd (Quantum), a prebiotic dietary fibre business located in China.{{cite web|url=https://ukinvestormagazine.co.uk/tate-lyle-acquires-quantum-hi-tech-biological-for-237m/|title=Tate & Lyle acquires Quantum Hi-Tech Biological for $237m|date=31 March 2022|publisher=UK Investor Magazine|access-date=16 November 2022}}

In January 2023, Tate & Lyle announced a rebrand, including a new logo and typography for all products except Lyle's Golden Syrup (which maintains the original logo, the world's oldest unchanged brand packaging), new imagery and a new narrative: science, solutions, society.{{cite web|url=https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/23144-rebranding-at-tate-and-lyle-includes-new-logo|title=Tate & Lyle announces rebrand|date=31 January 2023|publisher=Food Business News|access-date=1 February 2023}}

In June 2024, Tate & Lyle announced that the company has signed an agreement to acquire CP Kelco, a provider of pectin and speciality gums, from J.M. Huber, a large US-based family-owned corporation.{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/uks-sweetener-maker-tate-lyle-buy-us-based-cp-kelco-18-bln-2024-06-20/|title=Tate & Lyle bulks up food ingredients with $1.8 bln CP Kelco deal|date=20 June 2024|newspaper=Reuters|access-date=27 June 2024}}

File:Corn syrup tank car.jpg

The company is organised as follows:{{cite web|url=https://www.tateandlyle.com/what-we-do|title=Our structure|publisher=Tate & Lyle|access-date=20 March 2019}}

• Sweeteners, such as Splenda (sucralose), crystalline fructose, and allulose
• Texturants, such as starch and gums
• Health and wellness ingredients, such as dietary fibres
• Stabilisers and functional systems

• Primient, American subsidiary
• Splenda, sugar substitute
• Redpath Sugar, former subsidiary

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|author=Steven K. Ashby and C. J. Hawking|publisher=University of Illinois Press|title=Staley: The Fight For A New American Labor Movement|isbn=978-0-252-07640-4|date= 2009}} – A source for information concerning T&L's union-busting activities in the early 1990s in Decatur, Illinois
• Sugar and All That... A History of Tate & Lyle by Antony Hugill (Gentry Books, 1978) {{ISBN|0-85614-048-1}}
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20081121143335/http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/1987/210tate_lyle.htm#summary Tate & Lyle PLC and Ferruzzi Finanziaria SpA and S & W Berisford PLC]}}, 1987 Competition Commission report
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20081203125054/http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/1991/297tate_lyle.htm Tate & Lyle PLC and British Sugar plc]}}, 1991 Competition Commission report
• {{cite book|author=Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi|publisher=Collins|title=The Sugar Girls|isbn=978-0-00-744847-0|title-link=The Sugar Girls|year=2012}}

{{Commons category|Tate & Lyle}}

• [http://www.tateandlyle.com/Pages/default.aspx Tate & Lyle corporate website]
• {{OpenCorp|Tate and Lyle}}
• [http://www.lovelanelives.com/index.php/home/ The history of sugar in Liverpool and the effects of the closure of the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery]
• [http://www.primelocation.com/articles/luxury-homes-for-sale/ The house of William Park Lyle, son of Abram Lyle, has had a multi million makeover]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070703163735/http://www.thesugargirls.com/ The Sugar Girls official website]}}
• {{PM20|FID=co/022006|TEXT=Documents and clippings about|NAME=}}

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{{FT 30 constituents}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate and Lyle}}

Category:British royal warrant holders

Category:Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom

Category:Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange

Category:Food processing in London

Category:British brands

Category:Sugar companies

Category:Starch companies

Category:Port of London

Category:Industry on the River Thames

Category:Manufacturing companies based in Liverpool

Category:1921 establishments in England

Category:British companies established in 1921

Category:Food and drink companies established in 1921

Category:Sugar industry of the United Kingdom

Category:Companies based in the City of Westminster

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