00:00So what we're seeing now with Tate & Lyle, it is obviously it's being acquired by an American large global
00:08ingredients company called Ingredion.
00:10And on the back of that acquisition, obviously Ingredion are hoping to use the heritage, the scale, the technology, the
00:19innovation of Tate & Lyle, especially in a market where snack foods and sweeteners, which is Tate & Lyle's home
00:29turf, are declining.
00:32And Ingredion want the technology around artificial sweeteners that Tate & Lyle now is famous for.
00:39Tate & Lyle headquarters itself in London, and it also famously ran a refinery in Silvertown in London's East End,
00:49although this was sold to an American rival firm, separating the Tate & Lyle's sugar refining arm from the corporate
00:57Ingredient-focused parent company, which is now at the centre of this takeover.
01:02Ingredient's takeover values Tate at £2.7 billion, or £3.7 billion, including debt, and follows a number of earlier
01:13proposals by the American suitor.
01:15The deal also raises the specter of job cuts, with Ingredient cautioning a review of Tate & Lyle's operations that
01:23could lead to material job cuts among Tate & Lyle's workforce, as it looks to save around US$130 million
01:30a year by the end of 2030 following the takeover.
01:35You know, people will be asking what US ownership means for Tate & Lyle.
01:41Tate & Lyle, and I think one of the many things it'll mean is learning how to work with Americans,
01:46learning how to understand the mindset.
01:49And one of the key aspects of the American mindset is about scaling.
01:53It's about big, it's about speed, it's about innovation, it's about new and improved.
02:00Now, that's not to say Tate & Lyle haven't already been thinking about that and possibly operating that way, but
02:07it'll be even more urgent for Tate & Lyle to recognize that under American ownership, the business culture will dominate.
02:15And as the author of the book, Working with Americans, I can tell you that there are a lot of
02:20companies, once they're acquired by Americans, that will need to make fundamental adaptations to accommodate the business culture.
02:30What we're now noticing is the real impact of consumer trends on Tate & Lyle.
02:36And this has been happening over the last several years, but even more recently, they've been much more extreme.
02:44Why? Because consumer habits in the U.S., in the U.K., across Europe, and many other parts of the
02:51world have meant that they are using weight loss medications, they no longer favor big pack sizes.
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