It is not an ideal time for Tate & Lyle’s CFO to be leaving. Plummeting sucralose prices have made it a difficult few months for the ingredients group, which reported a 2% drop in both full-year sales and operating profits at the end of May.
After 25 years at the company, including six as CFO, Tim Lodge has decided to leave the company at the end of the year in search of a new challenge. It is a blow for Tate & Lyle to lose such a respected figure at this time.
Working with CEO Javed Ahmed, Lodge has helped turn around the performance of Tate & Lyle – judiciously selling its loss-making sugar business and focusing the company on speciality ingredients.
However, any concerns about the departure are tempered by the calibre of the replacement Tate & Lyle has lined up.
Nick Hampton is joining the company from PepsiCo where he has held a number of senior positions including CFO of the Europe business and most recently president of West Europe and senior vice president of commercial for Europe.
PepsiCo is likely to be a major customer of Tate’s so on top of all his strong multinational finance and commerce credentials, he will bring to the role valuable insight from the perspective of a buyer.
The big challenge for Hampton will not only be to get Tate & Lyle back in growth, but to do so while reducing its vulnerability to commodity price fluctuations. That means more investment in R&D and innovation, but may also mean finding good acquisition opportunities.
If Tate & Lyle doesn’t move quickly, then it could become a target itself. Bunge has long been rumoured to be interested in the company and in April there was renewed speculation that it was considering a £3.9bn bid.
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