This year, we celebrate 160 years of Tate & Lyle. In 1859 Henry Tate first entered the sugar refining business and, from those humble beginnings in a single factory in Liverpool, we have grown to become a global ingredients business. Today we help thousands of customers around the world to take sugar, calories and fat out of food and drink, and enrich it with fibre.
Today, we begin our celebrations with a 160-day countdown to the end of 2019. 160 days of opportunity to remember with pride how far Tate & Lyle has come since 1859, to celebrate the role we have played in that story, and how, together with our colleagues of today and yesterday, we have contributed to our purpose of Improving Lives for Generations.
160 years is a long time!
We are proud to be older than some of the world’s most iconic innovations and events: the London underground; Raffles in Singapore; the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; Tabasco sauce; samba dancing at the Rio Carnival and Wimbledon. In fact, we believe Henry Tate started his business before hot dogs were introduced to America!
Embracing change has given us life
Businesses come and go, so what is it about Tate & Lyle that means we’re still here, thriving and growing, 160 years later? If you look back at our history, you’ll see it’s because Tate & Lyle has continually reinvented itself to meet the needs of the times. Whether it be changes in our markets, political and regulatory influences, or growth opportunities from the businesses who have become part of our family, we have always embraced change. It’s our resilience in the face of this change that has enabled us to grow our business successfully over the last 160 years, and will help us grow our business for the next 160 years.
People keep us strong
Throughout our history, we’ve always had very talented people working for us. From our entrepreneurial pioneers, Henry Tate, Abram Lyle, Georg Hahn, Augustus Staley and more, to the people in each of our locations around the world today, one thing is for sure – we’re not short of innovative thinkers, go-getters, or star performers.
Celebrate with us
We’re proud of our heritage and over the next 160 days we’ll be sharing more stories of our long history on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Read more of our story on the Heritage page and see how some things have really changed over the years.