Last checked at 19 Oct 2010 15:30
19 October 2010 - Tate & Lyle PLC
Tate & Lyle to establish new Commercial and Food Innovation Centre in Chicago, Illinois
Tate & Lyle PLC ("Tate & Lyle") announces today that it is to establish a new Commercial and Food Innovation Centre in Chicago, Illinois.
In May 2010, Tate & Lyle announced the implementation of a new global organisational structure as part of its clear intention to focus, fix and grow its business. The establishment of this new Centre, bringing Tate & Lyle's innovation group and speciality food ingredients business in North America together in a new, state-of-the-art facility in Chicago, with enhanced access to customers, represents the next logical step in the development of this new structure.
The new Centre will be the global headquarters of Tate & Lyle's Innovation and Commercial Development group and the regional headquarters for the Speciality Food Ingredients business in North America. The Centre will also act as the base for those US employees with global responsibilities and, accordingly, the President of the Bulk Ingredients global business unit, and his support staff, will be located there. These groups are all currently located in Decatur, Illinois, and, therefore, employees from these groups in due course will be relocating to Chicago. In total, approximately 160 positions will be located in the new Centre.
The 110,000 square-foot, three-storey building, to be leased by Tate & Lyle and situated in the Hoffman Estates area of Chicago, will feature laboratories, a demonstration kitchen, and sensory testing, analytical and pilot plant facilities. The new Centre will be specifically designed to meet customers' functional, formulation and nutritional needs and to accelerate the process of bringing new products to market.
The new Centre is expected to be operational by the end of 2011.
Tate & Lyle expects to recognise exceptional costs of up to US$32 million in connection with relocation and restructuring associated with this initiative, and capital expenditure of US$26 million in relation to the fit-out of the new Centre, both to be incurred largely in the year ending 31 March 2012.
Javed Ahmed, Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle said:
"Meeting our customers' product development and innovation needs is at the very heart of our business. The new Commercial and Food Innovation Centre in Chicago will enable our scientists, marketing, sales and technical experts to collaborate more closely with our customers, and to respond rapidly to their needs for innovative food ingredients and solutions.
"Tate & Lyle's clear priority is to grow its Speciality Food Ingredients business, supported by cash generated from Bulk Ingredients. This investment represents another important step in positioning Tate & Lyle to deliver on its strategic objectives as we focus, fix and grow our business."
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For more information contact Tate & Lyle PLC:
| Chris McLeish, Group VP, Investor and Media Relations |
| Tel: +44 (0) 20 7977 6211 or Mobile: +44 (0) 7919 102 730 |
| William Baldwin-Charles, Head of Media Relations |
| Tel: +44 (0) 20 7977 6165 or Mobile: +44 (0) 7810 151 425 |
About Tate & Lyle:
Tate & Lyle is a global provider of ingredients and solutions to the food, beverage and other industries, operating from more than 45 production facilities around the world. Through our large-scale, efficient manufacturing plants, we turn raw materials into distinctive, high quality ingredients for our customers. Our ingredients and solutions add taste, texture, nutrition and increased functionality to products that millions of people around the world use or consume every day.
Tate & Lyle's range of leading branded food ingredients includes SPLENDA® Sucralose, PROMITOR™ Dietary Fiber and STA-LITE® Polydextrose. Tate & Lyle also produces branded industrial ingredients including Bio-PDO™, Ethylex® and Sta-Lok® paper starches; and staple ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, ethanol, citric acid and basic starches. In addition to providing a wide range of ingredients our Innovation and Commercial Development Group supports customers by providing product development, technical advice and proprietary consumer insight studies.
Tate & Lyle is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TATE.L. American Depositary Receipts trade under TATYY. In the year to 31 March 2010, Tate & Lyle employed 5,666 people in its subsidiaries and joint ventures, and sales totalled £3.6 billion. http://www.tateandlyle.com.
SPLENDA® is a trademark of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC
Copyright Business Wire 2010