Tate & Lyle forms JV with maker of stabilisers

LONDON, UK – Tate & Lyle PLC, a leading global provider of speciality food ingredients and solutions, has entered into a new agreement with Xuzhou Yitong Food Industry Co., Ltd to form a Sino-foreign joint venture. The new JV, Tate & Lyle Howbetter, came to be through the acquisition of a 51% equity interest in Jiangsu Howbetter Food Co., Ltd, a leading food systems business in the People’s Republic of China.

Tate & Lyle will acquire 22% of its equity interest from Yitong and the balance of 29% from S.B International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Europe-based global food business (which has been a shareholder in Howbetter since 2009). Tate & Lyle also has an option to acquire Yitong’s remaining 49% equity interest in Howbetter at a later stage. The transaction is subject to governmental approval which is expected in the autumn.

Howbetter provides the local beverage market with stabiliser systems and ingredient blends. It operates from a blending facility in Suqian and has application laboratories in the nearby city of Xuzhou, both in Jiangsu province. The company was one of the first Chinese food blending businesses to be awarded a license to operate under new regulations put in place in 2010.

Olivier Rigaud, president, Speciality Food Ingredients for Tate & Lyle said: “The combination of Tate & Lyle’s global blending capabilities and recipe know-how with Howbetter’s strong local expertise and infrastructure provides us with an excellent platform on which to accelerate the growth of our Food Systems business in China.”

Feng Guang, chairman of Yitong and general manager of Howbetter, will be general manager of the new joint venture. He said: “Tate & Lyle and Howbetter are two highly complementary businesses with the same absolute focus on quality and customer service. Together, we will be able to offer our customers in China a significantly enhanced range of products and technical expertise”.

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