Nick Hart, Tate & Lyle’s sucralose product manager, was named a finalist in the Food and Drink Federation’s Annual Awards, held last week. Nick was recognised in the UK manufacturing trade body’s annual events as one of the stand-out ‘Hidden Heroes’ that have helped keep the food and drink industry going and people fed during the pandemic. Here, you can find out why judges selected Nick.
Nick’s day-to-day role at Tate & Lyle is to oversee the global supply and positioning of sucralose, our no calorie sweetener sold under the SPLENDA® Sucralose brand. Sucralose, as the most widely used high intensity sweetener, is a vital tool in industry’s reformulation toolbox, enabling our customers to create a wide-range of food and drink products with less sugar and fewer calories, important at a time when global obesity rates are rising and public health concerns are high. As a global product manager for a key ingredient in our portfolio, and from our headquarters in London, Nick has built a valuable network and strong collaborations with colleagues in more than 30 countries. These relationships and established communication channels stood Nick in good stead as he took on an active role in our response to Covid-19, helping to ensure our customers in around 120 countries are served, and the millions of people they feed are fed.
The difference Nick has made:
As the pandemic began to unfold in parts of China at the start of 2020, Nick worked with key customers to address their concerns around security of supply, identifying available stock and overcoming distribution challenges to coordinate shipments of product from our US production facility to customers worldwide, from Singapore to Ireland. His determined response and creative thinking helped us deepen relationships with customers who value reliability and flexibility in their partners more than ever before.
Nick also developed a more comprehensive, more regular internal update to provide product availability and a Covid-19-related supply and distribution risks register, enabling our global sales colleagues to anticipate and solve customer supply challenges across Tate & Lyle product lines earlier and even better. This helped to ensure supermarket shelves remained stocked and larders filled.
When concerns around PPE availability were at their height, health bodies asked Tate & Lyle for help sourcing a key ingredient used to fit-test face masks. To test if a mask is fitted properly, a sweetened solution is sprayed on it to see if the wearer can taste it through the mask. When stocks of the usual sweetener were providing hard to come by, Nick swiftly arranged for sucralose to be gifted to health bodies in the UK and the US, making sure health workers had the necessary emergency stocks to help them stay safe during the crisis.
We are incredibly proud of how Nick and our colleagues working in our production facilities, labs and offices worldwide have stepped up to the challenges presented by Covid-19 and collaborated closely with supply chain partners to maintain the availability of safe, great-tasting, healthier food and drink.
Note: SPLENDA® and the SPLENDA® Logo are trademarks of Heartland Consumer Products LLC