UK sugar and sweetener group Tate & Lyle has said its overall trading performance since its last update on 25 January has “continued to be good” and is in line with its expectations.
Demand for the company’s Splenda sucralose sweetener remained “very strong” with the company using all its current production capacity. Work on the plant expansions in McIntosh, Alabama, and the construction of the new plant in Singapore remains on track, the company said.
The good performance from Splenda helped offset both lower sweetener margins in the company’s European food and industrial ingredients unit and the impact of higher cost export licences in its European sugars division.
Tate & Lyle said its Americas food and industrial ingredients division performed well, again benefiting from growth in value added food ingredients. The company’s sugar operations in Canada, Vietnam and Mexico continued to perform in line with its expectations.
Tate & Lyle is due to report preliminary results for the year to 31 March 2005 on 2 June.
