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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Tate & Lyle
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Sugar company formed by the merger of two firms established in the mid-19C. Henry Tate (1819–99, bt 1898) was a sugar refiner in Liverpool when an invention was brought to his notice in 1872 – a device for producing easily packaged cubes of sugar, instead of the jagged pieces previously chipped by grocers from large blocks. Tate patented the idea and it led to a massive increase in his business, which he transferred in 1880 to London. In the remaining two decades of his life he became an exceptionally generous philanthropist and an important collector of contemporary British art. He made major benefactions to Liverpool; in London he offered to give his collection to the nation and to build a home for it. The result was the *Tate Gallery.
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Tate's main commercial rival had been his Scottish contemporary Abram Lyle (1820–91), who from 1865 had a sugar refinery at Greenock on the Clyde. He also moved his business to London, in 1883, and in 1885 introduced an extremely successful product, Golden Syrup. The Tate and Lyle families merged their interests in 1921 to form an enterprise of a size to match any foreign competition. The joint venture was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1928.
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