Tate & Lyle's new boss, Javed Ahmed, has unveiled a wide-ranging shake-up of the sweeteners and starches group which will switch it away from its historic sugar business, and towards developing countries.

Mr Ahmed - a highly-rated hiring from Reckitt Benckiser, who had been expected by investors to make sweeping reforms - switched the group's focus from its commodity businesses, which have swallowed two-thirds of capital over the last four years, to higher-margin food ingredients.

"Over time, our investment focus will be realigned," Mr Ahmed said, as he made his first full-year results statement since becoming the Tate chief executive in October.

"Our engine of growth and the focus of acquisitions will be specialty food ingredients."

Geographic switch 

He also rejigged the group's geographic set-up, which has seen investment "overwhelmingly focused on developed markets, with emerging markets largely ignored".

There would be "greater emphasis on emerging markets", Mr Ahmed said.

Tate's historic sugar business and its bulk ingredients operations, responsible for products such as industrial starch, would receive investment needed "to increase their efficiency and generate cash".

"Through these changes, and a strong focus on operational excellence and execution, we will build the platform to deliver sustainable long-term growth," he added.

Writedowns 

He also unveiled changes including the closure of the group's final salary pension scheme, bringing a one-off gain of £42m, a move to a group-wide technology platform, and write-offs to the value of a number of plants, notably the part-completed Fort Dodge ethanol plant in the US.

The plant is "highly unlikely" to be finished in the foreseeable future, leading to a writedown of $217m against its value.

The charges helped drag group earnings down 73% to £19m in the year to the end of March, although stripping out one off effects, operating profits were stable to £298m.

Revenues fell by 2.3% to £3.51bn, with sales declining in both the European food and industrial ingredients business, dented by greater competition for its corn-based products from wheat and potato starches, and in sugar, following cuts to regulated prices in Europe.

'Logical direction'

The statement received a cautious welcome from analyst Graham Jones at Panmure Gordon, who said the results were "slightly ahead of expectations" and the strategy revamp "rational"

"We think Mr Ahmed is taking Tate in a logical direction," Mr Jones said, adding that he would review his "hold" rating on the group's shares after an investor meeting.

At rival broker Evolution, Warren Ackerman said: "Javed Ahmed's strategic review seems to be more about doing the basics better than any radical changes. This is what we wanted to see."

He kept a "buy" rating on the shares, and price target of 525p.

Credit Suisse, keept an outperform rating on the shares and a 525p, but said that while the restructuring was "all good stuff, there is no big headline target, just a headline write-off. And for that the market may be a touch disappointed".

The stock closed 2.2% lower at 415.3p in London.