Tate & Lyle's Sweet Smell of Success
Look in your kitchen cupboards and you will almost certainly find a Tate & Lyle product. In fact, millions of people around the world use or consume Tate & Lyle's ingredients every day. One of London Thames Gateway's longest standing firms, the company has a fascinating legacy, dating back to bygone days and crossing continents. A local success story, with the HQ of its European sugar business right here in east London, its high quality products have remained true to their original recipes, and stayed popular with generations of consumers. By contrast, as this article explains, its working culture has adapted at pace with the modern world.
A legacy that started in Victorian times
So where did it all start? The Thames Refinery in Silvertown began refining cane sugar in 1878 when Queen Victoria was on the throne and Benjamin Disraeli was Prime Minister. Twenty-three Prime Ministers and five Monarchs later, the refinery is still going strong and Tate & Lyle sugar remains one of the UK's best known household brands. In 1883 Abram Lyle & Sons - makers of Lyle's Golden Syrup - began production at Plaistow Wharf Refinery, just a mile up river from Henry Tate's refinery. The two companies merged in 1921 to form Tate & Lyle but, interestingly, Henry Tate and Abram Lyle never actually met. Tate & Lyle's Thames Refinery processes over 1 million tonnes per annum of raw cane sugar imported by ship mainly from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
Using partially refined syrups from its Thames Refinery operation, Tate & Lyle's Plaistow Wharf site manufactures some 20,000 tonnes per annum of syrup products, principally the universally loved Lyle's Golden Syrup. Tate & Lyle exports about 30 per cent of the output from these two operations by ship via the Thames.
Tate & Lyle has increased its global presence through innovation and by acquiring and partnering with a number of other well respected companies, who also have manufacturing high quality ingredients at heart. The multinational food giant says its success is achieved by adding taste, texture and nutrition to everyday products.
Also in London Thames Gateway, the Dagenham terminal is a molasses storage and blending operation which Tate & Lyle has owned since 1935. Molasses is a valuable byproduct of the sugar refining process and has many uses such as in animal feedstuffs and as a fermentation substrate. The Dagenham plant has a capacity of 33,000 tonnes. Annually, it receives 25,000 tonnes of molasses from Thames Refinery, and a further 145,000 tonnes of imported molasses from places such as India, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
A successful multinational company with its roots in London Thames Gateway
Tate & Lyle's London Thames Gateway sugar and syrup businesses have just celebrated their 130th and 125th birthdays respectively. Today, Tate & Lyle is a world-leading manufacturer of renewable food and industrial ingredients with a turnover of £3.4bn and operates over 50 production facilities in 26 countries, based mainly in Europe, the Americas and South East Asia.
They say people are a company's best asset and Tate & Lyle's staff are no exception. Almost 800 people, including contactors, are employed at Tate & Lyle's east London sites and being in London Thames Gateway - part of the most exciting and dynamic city in the world - the company has access to a labour pool of 3.6m and a further 4m around London. At the end of the 2007-2008 financial year Tate & Lyle employed 6,500 people globally in its subsidiaries and joint ventures. Tate & Lyle also has a number of starch processing operations in the United States and mainland Europe, which make food and industrial ingredients from corn and wheat.
The riverside location in London Thames Gateway is therefore vital for Tate & Lyle's import and export sugar activities, the other benefit being the proximity to the large Midlands and Southern England markets. With a central location at the heart of Europe; exceptional national and international connections; and the fastest growing transport infrastructure in the UK; Tate & Lyle's London Thames Gateway sites have the means to further benefit from the region's excellent transport infrastructure.
What is pleasantly surprising is that this company isn't just interested in the balance sheet. Tate & Lyle believe it's important to ‘give something back' so has an active, long-running, community involvement programme which involves partnering with other organisations to help establish strong, safe and healthy communities. Investing time and resources into focused projects that directly address local needs is how it's done at Tate & Lyle. The company gives financial and charitable support each year to over 200 organisations, the vast majority of which are in Newham, where both Tate & Lyle's Thames Refinery and Plaistow Wharf Refinery are located.
Projects are diverse and far reaching and include to name but a few: the Junior Citizens programme where over 3,000 primary school children spend a half day each year at Tate & Lyle's Thames Refinery on a child safety awareness programme run by the Metropolitan Police; and VerbalEyes at Tate Britain, where 300 primary schoolchildren from schools in Newham, Greenwich and Westminster complete a six-month project, supported by employee volunteers, using original works of art to improve language and literacy skills.
Community groups Community Links, Auction My Stuff, Community Food Enterprise, Hoops4Health, Crisis Open Christmas and Richard House Children's Hospice also benefit from Tate Lyle. They receive free on-site accommodation, ranging from office space to substantial warehousing, with financial and other support in addition.
Where to now?
Tate & Lyle recently announced that it would start the process of switching its entire UK retail cane sugars range to Fairtrade by the end of 2009.
Ian Bacon, Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle, Sugars commented: "These are exciting times at Tate & Lyle. We are in the process of moving our entire retail cane sugars range to Fairtrade and are making significant investments at the refinery, including a novel biomass boiler which will cut fossil fuel consumption by 70 per cent from 2009." Tate & Lyle has always enjoyed a reputation for being an excellent employer and a strong supporter of London Thames Gateway's local communities.
Tate & Lyle doesn't plan to increase the number of sites it operates in the London Thames Gateway, it is investing in several capital projects to both expand its UK sugar business and to improve its efficiency and environmental performance. These projects include two new raw sugar unloading cranes and a new biomass boiler, which will bring real cost and environmental benefits. In addition, Tate & Lyle also recently announced the formation of a joint venture with Eridania Sadam to sell its sugar to the Italian market.
For further information about business properties and sites in London Thames Gateway please contact Gateway to London Tel: 020 7540 5560 Email: info@gtlon.co.uk Web: www.gtlon.co.uk
