Diet trend sweetens Tate & Lyle profit

Diet-conscious consumers cutting back on sugar by using low-calorie sweeteners helped food ingredients group Tate & Lyle serve up sweeter full-year profits.

Rising levels of obesity and diabetes in the US, Europe and emerging markets and high sugar prices fuelled demand for Tate's Splenda sucralose sweetener, keeping its share of the global market at about 90 per cent, the group said.

Poor availability in Europe of potato-based starches drove demand for Tate's corn-based starches, while the fragile economic recovery also helped increase starch demand from convenience-food makers.

The group said it was re-opening a mothballed Splenda plant in the US next year as demand for the sweetener due to long-term healthier eating trends outstripped capacity at its Singapore operation.

Tate racked up a forecast-beating 34 per cent rise in annual profits to 263 million and raised its total dividend for the year by 3.5 per cent to 23.7p, its first annual increase since 2008-9.

Chief executive Javed Ahmed said: "In North America and Western Europe, we are seeing steady demand for our speciality food ingredients and have seen some pick-up since the economic downturn."

Ahmed has focused on value-added products and away from bulk commodity business since taking on his role in late 2009, selling the company's sugar refining operations and its mothballed Fort Dodge ethanol plant in Iowa to rival Cargill.