Tate & Lyle’s annual revenues hit by weaker consumer demand
The global Tate & Lyle Plc group has released its latest trading update for the year ending March 2024, with the business impacted by challenging conditions as revenue fell 4% year-on-year, writes Neill Barston.
According to the company, its performance had been attributed to softer demand from consumers, which has happened against an ongoing cost of living crisis, as well the company receiving fewer orders than anticipated in the fourth quarter.
However, the business asserted that results for 2024 are expected to improve and return to volume growth, as the company continues development of products across its portfolio, including for confectionery, snacks and bakery.
Nick Hampton, Chief Executive of the company (below), believed its latest annual performance had fared well against trading headwinds. He said: “Tate& Lyle delivered resilient performance in challenging market conditions.”
“In Food & Beverage Solutions, volume and revenue were lower than the comparative period. This was due to a combination of softer consumer demand and customer de-stocking, reduced inflation pass through, and some customers phasing orders into the fourth quarter when new calendar year contracts, which included the pass through of input cost deflation, came into effect. Sucralose delivered an improved performance.
“The renewal of customer contracts for the 2024 calendar year is expected to deliver a sequential improvement in volume growth as the year progresses. Reflecting this, and the phasing of some customer orders from December, we saw good volume growth in January.”
He added that customers continue to recognise the benefits its solutions capabilities across sweetening, mouthfeel and fortification, and he confirmed that the business remain committed to increasing investment in both solution selling and innovation.
As part of this, he observed that new products from its innovation pipeline reportedly grew strongly, attaining double-digit revenue growth on a like-for-like basis in the first three quarters of the financial year.
The CEO concluded: “The strategic repositioning of Tate & Lyle to focus on speciality food ingredients, and the investments we have made to strengthen our ingredient portfolio and solutions expertise, have positioned us well to benefit from the long-term trends towards healthier, tastier and more sustainable food and drink.”
