New CEO appointed at Tate & Lyle
Javed Ahmed, Tate & Lyle’s executive vice president of European operations, will take over from current CEO Iain Ferguson in November 2009.
Ferguson has led the company as CEO since 2003 but has seen the company full year profits decline in the past three years, multiple debt downgrades and an eleven per cent fall in the share price.
The company, once the world’s biggest sugar refiner, was ejected from the FTSE 100 index this year and recently lost a legal battle claiming that the Chinese product sucralose was infringing the patent on its high-margin sweetener Splenda.
Tate & Lyle has been refocusing to reduce its dependency on sugar, following changes to the European sugar regime, and transforming into a health and wellness oriented company. There have been concerns about its profits, however, as a result of weakness in its starch operations and slow take up of ethanol as an alternative fuel.
