Tate & Lyle’s London facility has been in operation 130 years.

HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited Tate & Lyle’s historic sugar refinery today in Silvertown, London, UK, to commemorate 130 years of sugar refining at the site.

The refinery began production in 1878 when Queen Victoria was on the throne and Disraeli was Prime Minister.

Since then, the company has processed cane sugar from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries for 130 years – even keeping production going through the London Blitz despite several direct hits. Today, it processes around one million tonnes of sugar every year.
 
Two weeks ago, Tate & Lyle announced that it would start the process of switching its entire UK retail cane sugars range to Fairtrade by the end of 2009 – beginning with 1kg bags of white granulated cane sugar.

During the Royal Visit, The Queen received a special edition bag of Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Cane Sugar commemorating 130 years of production and the first fortnight of Fairtrade.
 
Ian Bacon, Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle, Sugars said: “It is a great honour that Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh visited our historic site today and met so many of our employees.
 
“These are exciting times at Tate & Lyle. We are in the process of moving our entire retail cane sugars range to Fairtrade and are making significant investments at the refinery, including a novel biomass boiler which will cut fossil fuel consumption by 70% from 2009. Investments and innovation will help us ensure we remain a well-loved UK institution for the next 130 years.” 

By Natasha Piscitelli