Shutdown of McIntosh Splenda plant ahead of schedule

Tate & Lyle PLC said Friday that closure of its Splenda-brand sucralose plant in McIntosh is running ahead of schedule.

The British company announced in May that it would close the 10-year-old plant, laying off most of the 120 workers and shifting all production to Singapore. The move stunned Washington County leaders, in part because Tate & Lyle had invested more than $200 million to buy and expand the plant since 2004.

Friday, the firm said manufacturing operations at McIntosh had ceased ahead of schedule and that only finishing and packaging operations were continuing. Tate & Lyle said it still had a large supply of McIntosh-made sucralose that it expected to use by the end of March.

The firm said it had spent 55 million pounds (about $91 million) on closing McIntosh, less than the 60 million pounds originally projected because the U.S. dollar had slipped in value.

The firm reiterated that it was maintaining the plant in a state in which it could be restarted if demand outstripped capacity in Singapore. A productivity breakthrough that allowed the company to get more Splenda from the same amount of raw ingredients allowed Tate & Lyle to close the McIntosh plant.

Overall, the firm reported pretax profits of

112 million pounds ($185 million) for the six months that ended Sept. 30. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast 113 million pounds.

Splenda sales rose

9 percent to 101 million pounds, once currency changes were cancelled out. Operating profit rose 3 percent to 35 million pounds. That 35 percent profit margin is far greater than Tate & Lyle's other businesses.