Tate & Lyle agrees £2.7 billion sale to Ingredion, with 500 jobs at risk

Sweetener and industry solutions group Tate & Lyle has agreed a £2.7 billion acquisition by rival ingredients group, Ingredion, which would forge a global mega-enterprise, reports Neill Barston. 

The British business, which has more than 165 years of trading experience to its name, had existed as a separate entity after officially selling its renowned sugar enterprise to American refining group ASR back in 2010, positioning itself as an alternative sweetening ingredients provide.

Significantly, it has been reported by national media that the deal, which has seen it share value placed at an elevated level of 615p, would involved cutting several percent of its workforce – amounting to up to 500 jobs being lost from its international activities.

It presently employs around 5,000 employees working in 75 locations in 37 countries, serving customers in more than 120 countries.

As Confectionery Production has previously reported on from events around the world including Gulfood Manufacturing, as well as US shows such as Supply Side West, the company has amassed strong experience working within confectionery, chocolate and snacking markets.

Notably, as our title has reported within the past year, market uncertainty within a number of segments, including for ingredients, has impacted on revenues for many businesses, with the likes of Tate & Lyle being no exception to that in its filings during 2025.

However, the company expressed hopes for long-term growth within the broader market, though acknowledged that more immediate markets had been deteriorating across its core regions, namely within Europe and the US, prompting the business to lower performance expectations.

In spite of this, Tate & Lyle has continued to work across the full spectrum of the food and drink sector, forging leadership on sweetening, mouthfeel and fortification within functional ingredients.

As the business, which is one of the UK’s oldest listed firms, noted, in recent years, Tate & Lyle has successfully completed a major strategic and structural transformation. Through two transactions completed in April 2022 and June 2024, Tate & Lyle sold its Primary Products (“Primient”) commodity business in the Americas to KPS Capital Partners, LLP.

It  then acquired CP Kelco, a leading global provider of pectin and
speciality gums in November 2024 to create a leader across its sweetening, mouthfeel and fortification platforms with a unique product portfolio and enhanced formulation capabilities significantly increasing Tate & Lyle’s ability to be a solutions partner of choice for its customers.

The deal would be subjected to international regulatory compliance clearance, though it is unclear at this stage if the company’s historic branding would be retained, or placed completely under Ingredion applications.