Tate & Lyle in Birkenhead
TATE & LYLE is to end its 150-year presence in Liverpool after agreeing to sell its molasses operation.
Northern Ireland-based grain trader W & R Barnett will pay £67m for the business, in a deal which will see the 50 employees based at Regent Road, Bootle, and Birkenhead’s North Alfred Dock transfer over.
The proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce Tate & Lyle’s net debt. Completion is conditional on employee consultation but is expected to occur in the next few weeks.
That will be the last of Tate & Lyle’s operations in Merseyside, which has been closely associated with the company since Liverpool shop owner Henry Tate made his first venture into sugar cane refining in 1859.
Later he set up Henry Tate & Sons and the Love Lane Refinery in Liverpool was opened in 1872. A century later, it closed with the loss of 1,570 jobs, followed by a syrup making plant in Bootle which shut in 1984.
