Splenda sales boost trading at Tate & Lyle
strong during the last three months boosted by demand for its high
intensity sweetener Splenda.
The British sugar and sweetener company announced that trading was in line with expectations posted in January, while demand for Splenda remained "very strong" with current production capacity fully utilised.
"Work on the plant expansions in McIntosh, Alabama, and the construction of the new plant in Singapore remains on track," added the company.
Tate and Lyle also drew attention to the recent announcements by soft drinks makers who plan to begin using Splenda to create new ranges of their carbonated drinks.
Last month the soft drink giant Coca-Cola said it would role out a new version of its classic drink sweetened with Splenda. The new launch, complete with Splenda logo emblazoned on the can, will sit side by side with the firm's original Diet Coke, that uses the popular amino acid-based aspartame sweetener.
Hot on the heels of this announcement, PepsiCo revealed it will use Splenda sucralose in its reformulated Pepsi One cola to create a "full-flavour cola with only one calorie."
"We're increasing our focus on diet soft drinks this year, with the reformulation of Pepsi One as a major part of our efforts," said Katie Lacey, vice president of carbonated beverages at Pepsi-Cola North America.
All good news for the sweetener suppliers PepsiCo said it was planning an extensive marketing campaign this summer, including new products and specialised in-store merchandising, to push its entire diet soft drink range.
While the ingredients industry is bumping along today at around 3 to 4 per cent growth, suppliers of sweeteners are enjoying far stronger rates, 8.3 per cent year on year as rising health concerns drive consumers towards sugar free or low calorie products.
Market analysts Freedonia predict high single digit growth of intensity sweeteners will continue until 2008.
In a strong position to spear innovation, Coca Cola and arch competitor Pepsi have identified new sweetener based formulations to assure a hefty stake in this high growth market.
Diet soft drinks claim the biggest market share for artificial sweeteners, with over 87 million consumers in the US alone. According to a 1998 survey commissioned by the Calorie Control Council, 144 million American adults consume low-calorie, sugar-free products on a regular basis.
