Sweet taste of rising profits as Tate & Lyle’s sales surge is led by Splenda

GROWING demand from health-conscious consumers for its calorie-free sweetener Splenda helped food ingredients group Tate & Lyle post strong gains in full-year profits

The group, which re-opened a second production plant in the US in March to meet demand for Splenda, also saw steady growth across markets including Asia and Latin America contribute to the 23 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £323 million in the year to 31 March.

Chief executive Javed Ahmed said the group expected to see continued progress on profits and “top line growth” from its speciality food ingredient products this year.

He saw little improvement in the US economy where the company makes around 70 per cent of its sales but stressed the group has very little exposure in troubled eurozone nations such as Greece and Spain.

Ahmed has focused on speciality products, such as Splenda and food ingredients, and away from bulk commodities since taking over in late 2009.

Overall group sales rose 14 per cent to £3.1 billion and full-year dividends rose by 5.1 per cent to 24.9p.

Analyst Dirk Van Vlaanderen at Jefferies said earnings were slightly ahead of forecasts due to more favourable financing costs and he expected little change to forecasts of a 2 per cent rise in earnings in the current financial year.

“Management continues to mould the business in the right direction for the long term,” he said.

Shares in Tate & Lyle closed down 5p at 672p, valuing the company at £3.1bn.