Tate & Lyle 300
TATE & LYLE yesterday completed the sale of its molasses business to W&R Barnett, ending its 150-year association with Liverpool.
A conditional agreement was announced last month, subject to employee consultation.
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 across.
The proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce Tate & Lyle’s net debt.
It is 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.
