Those we can’t we will re-evaluate.”There is little doubt a radical approach is needed. Two years ago Tate & Lyle’s share price stood at close to 580p. Now it languishes at little more than 200p, valuing the whole business at just £1bn. Analysts say the combined value of the constituent parts of the business is probably worth more than the whole, suggesting some sort of breakup will come.There is certainly a lot to break up. Tate & Lyle operates in 50 countries and employs 22,000 people. In the UK its Tate & Lyle sugar business is a major force, with 40 per cent of the UK sugar market (the rival Silver Spoon brand owned by Associated British Foods has the other 60 per cent).

In US sugars, the company operates under the Domino, Western, and Redpath names. It also owns plants from Mauritius to Zimbabwe where the cane is processed into raw sugar at the point of harvesting (because the sugar content deteriorates rapidly after it is cut). The problem is that though demand for Tate & Lyle’s sugar is relatively stable, it has no control over supply. In Europe, sugar is protected by the quota system but no such mechanism exists in the US. There, recent bumper crops of sugar beet and cane have undermined the sugar price.

A fresh glut of cheap sugar is emerging from Mexico, worsening the problem. Also, most of Tate & Lyle’s US competitors are privately owned or are co-operative farm groups which can take a more relaxed approach to profitability.Not only is there too much sugar, there are too many producers. Mr Pillard admits: “Our industry has not consolidated as rapidly as our customer groups (like the major global supermarkets).”This is not all Mr Pillard’s fault. His predecessor, Sir Neil Shaw, quadrupled the size of Tate & Lyle’s American sugar business when he bought Amstar, the Domino sugar company in 1988.

Mr Pillard could have sold when profits peaked in the mid-1990s but he chose to hang on and has probably regretted it ever since.One food industry analyst says the company now has three choices. “They can participate in the consolidation in the industry and thereby reduce refining capacity; they can get the government to alter the sugar regime, which will be difficult; or they can get out of US sugar.”The problems do not end there. The company’s US Staley starch division has had a chequered past including a long-running strike in the mid-1990s. Costs have come down since, the number of workers has halved and production has increased. But profits at the division peaked in 1995 and prices of the operation’s key syrup has fallen, with raw material prices rising. In Australia, over-capacity forced its Bundaberg raw sugar subsidiary into loss.To be fair to Mr Pillard, he has not been sitting on his hands. Costs have been cut and acquisitions have been made in the higher-value food ingredient sector.