From a sugar producer to sugar reducer – the history of Tate & Lyle has followed the different roles sugar plays in society, Nick Hampton, CEO of Tate & Lyle tells Editor Caitlin Gittins
Please introduce yourself and what you do?
I’m Nick Hampton and I’m the CEO of Tate & Lyle. I joined the company as its Chief Financial Officer in 2014 and in April 2018 I was appointed Chief Executive.
Prior to joining Tate & Lyle, I gained 20 years of experience in several senior roles at PepsiCo – including as President West Europe & SVP Commercial Europe Sector and Chief Financial Officer, Europe – so I have been passionate about food and drink for several decades.
As CEO at Tate & Lyle, I’ve focused on championing the development and embedding of our company purpose – Transforming Lives Through the Science of Food – into our day-to-day operations.
I firmly believe that purpose and performance go hand in hand and that purpose is critical to the long-term success and health of our company. Our purpose inspires our people and resonates strongly with our customers. We’ve contributed over 200 billion grams of fibre to diets in the last five years and since 2020 we’ve provided 3.6 million meals to people in need through our food bank and charitable partnerships. Equity, diversity and inclusion is also a key part of our purpose, and I am delighted that 45% of our 500+ leadership and management roles are now held by women.
By digitising our knowledge and using AI in our labs, we are accelerating ingredient discovery and evolving our product offering at a faster pace than ever. Our portfolio will expand and offer a broad set of solutions to our customers. Increasingly customers are looking to their partners with an interest not only in the portfolio they offer, but also in how it is developed.
Tate & Lyle was first established in the 19th century. Since then, what have been significant milestones for the business? How has the sweetening/ingredient landscape changed?
We’ve been making ingredients for over 160 years, starting out as a sugar producer to become what we are today: offering ingredient solutions for healthier food and drink. We help take sugar, fat, and calories out of food and drink, and add nutritional benefits like fibre and protein. I like to think of it as a journey ‘from sugar producer to sugar reducer’. Because, although sugar reduction is by no means the only solution we are providing to the world, it’s certainly a core focus of our work. In the last three years alone, we’ve helped customers to remove 7 million tonnes of sugar from consumer diets, the equivalent of 28 trillion calories, using our low and no calorie sweeteners and fibres.
In the 164 years since we began, the needs and preferences of the people we feed in our communities have evolved enormously. And we’ve evolved with them: developing and launching new-to-the-world ingredients and line extensions that make tasty food healthier and healthy food tastier.
Consumer expectations around food and drink have evolved considerably, with people wanting far greater variety, choice and transparency. Beyond ingredients…
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Media contact
Caitlin Gittins
Editor, International Bakery
Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 920
Email: editor@in-bakery.com
