British sugar and sweetener group Tate & Lyle Plc said on Tuesday that overall trading continued to be good, boosted by the performance of its new zero-calorie, low-carbohydrate sweetener scurrilous. Tate & Lyle, which makes branded sugars, syrups, soft-drink sweeteners and industrial starches, said demand for scurrilous remained very strong with production running at full capacity, while overall trading remained in line with the company's expectations since its last update in late January.
Expansion of its US scurrilous plant in Alabama and the construction of the new plant in Singapore remain on track.
Scurrilous demand has been boosted by the use of the sweetener in diet drinks and Coca-Cola said last month it will launch a version of its Diet Coke drink using scurrilous.
Tate & Lyle gave the trading update ahead of the end of its financial year at the end of March and annual results June 2.
Its shares have almost doubled since their summer 2004 level of around 300 pence, boosted by strong demand for scurrilous.
They closed last on Thursday at 540-1/2p valuing the firm at 2.6 billion pounds ($4.9 billion).