Tate & Lyle Heads for Hoffman Estates

Tate & Lyle heads for Hoffman Estates

By: Eddie Baeb and Thomas A. Corfman August 02, 2010

The London-based maker of Splenda sweetener and other food ingredients is poised to move its U.S. headquarters to the northwest suburbs from Downstate Decatur, bringing hundreds of jobs to the Chicago area.

Tate & Lyle PLC is in advanced talks to occupy most of a three-year-old office building in Hoffman Estates, where the company would move its administrative staff and possibly some researchers, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The space is large enough to accommodate 400 to 500 workers.

Landing the U.S. headquarters of Tate & Lyle would bolster the region's status as a hub for the American operations of companies based overseas. Among those already here are Zurich Financial Services Group of Switzerland, which employs about 3,000 in Chicago and at its North American headquarters in Schaumburg, and Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc., which is building a new U.S. headquarters in Glenview for its roughly 1,000 employees.

“It's critical to have these major corporations because they attract talent and they retain talent for our region,” says Gerald Roper, CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

A Tate & Lyle executive in Decatur confirms the company is exploring moving some operations as part of a corporate reorganization but won't comment on specifics and says no decisions have been made.

“With that reorganization, it just makes sense for us to explore options around where positions should be located to best suit the needs of our customers and give us the ability to grow,” says Chris Olsen, a vice-president of community and government affairs.

Real estate sources say Tate & Lyle reviewed multiple suburban office locations before settling on a building at 5450 Prairie Stone Pkwy., in the Prairie Stone Corporate Center complex—home to Sears Holdings Corp. and a handful of other large corporate offices.

Tate & Lyle, which acquired Decatur's A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co. in 1988, has about 700 to 800 employees there and is the city's third- largest corporate employer after Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Caterpillar Inc. It's not clear how many employees would move to Hoffman Estates. Tate & Lyle's 430-acre facility includes its U.S. headquarters and the company's largest corn-processing plant, as well as research and development labs.

U.S. sales accounted for more than 50% of Tate & Lyle's companywide revenue of $5.47 billion last year. The company is a major producer of high-fructose corn syrup, competing with ADM and Westchester-based Corn Products International Inc.

While the Staley name has been prominent in Decatur for generations, it also has an old connection to Chicago. In 1920, the company sponsored a professional football team called the Decatur Staleys, which moved to Chicago a year later and became the Bears. The team's mascot is still named Staley.

A move from Decatur would mark another dramatic change at Tate & Lyle since Javed Ahmed took over as CEO last October. In July, the company announced plans to sell its European sugar-refining business after 130 years as a processor. Mr. Ahmed is focusing on higher-margin businesses such as Splenda and producing food ingredients for companies like Northfield-based Kraft Foods Inc.

Mr. Ahmed also in May said the company was terminating plans for an almost-completed ethanol plant in Fort Dodge, Iowa, which led to a $315-million impairment charge. The facility is now for sale, according to media reports.