Tate & Lyle shares turn sour on profit alert

Sweetener and ingredients firm Tate & Lyle has warned over falling full-year sales and earnings after seeing a slowdown in market demand.

Shares in the FTSE 250 listed company slumped by more than 10% in morning trading on Wednesday after the profit alert, as the firm said it now expects revenues and underlying earnings to fall by a “low single-digit per cent” in the year to March 31.

It had previously forecast revenue growth at, or slightly below, the bottom of its range of between 4% and 6%, while underlying earnings growth was expected ahead of sales.

Nick Hampton, chief executive of Tate & Lyle, said: “While the level of customer engagement is high, we have seen a slowdown in market demand, particularly in the last two months, which in turn has slowed our recent performance.”

“Against this challenging backdrop, we are accelerating a series of steps to drive delivery of top-line growth.”

The group’s actions include boosting its “customer-facing capabilities”, such as marketing, as well as an increased focus on technology and plans to increase productivity in its manufacturing operations.

Tate & Lyle – which last year bought food and drink ingredients business CP Kelco in a deal worth around £1.4 billion – said turnover across Europe, the Middle East and Africa is expected to be down by a mid-single-digit percentage, despite slightly higher demand, while revenues in Asia-Pacific are expected to be broadly in line after “absorbing the impact of tariffs”.

In the Americas, it is forecasting revenues to be slightly lower, reflecting softer consumer demand.

It now expects group revenues to fall by 3-4% over its first half to the end of September, and underlying earnings to fall by a “high single-digit per cent”, though it said the firm’s performance is set to improve in the fourth quarter.

“This will be driven by the actions we are taking to drive top-line growth and the increasing benefits from the CP Kelco combination,” it said.

Mr Hampton has been leading a significant strategic shift at the firm to move towards operations more closely linked to growing consumer trends for healthier and more sustainable food and drink.

He said: “Consumer demand for healthier and more nutritious food and drink continues to grow.”

He said the group’s expertise in “food and drink reformulation” means the firm is “well-positioned to capture this growth”.