Primary Products Ingredients Americas LLC (founded as A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company), also formerly known as Tate & Lyle Primary Products, is an American subsidiary of Tate & Lyle PLC that produces a range of starch products for the food, paper and other industries; high fructose corn syrup; crystalline fructose; and other agro-industrial products. The company was incorporated in 1906 as A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company by Augustus Eugene Staley.
In July 2021, Tate & Lyle announced it was spinning off Tate & Lyle Primary Products (formerly, A. E. Staley) into a new company to be known as Primary Products Ingredients Americas LLC (Primient). Tate & Lyle will maintain 50% ownership of Primient and the remaining 50% will be owned by KPS Capital Partners (including board and management control). The transaction was completed by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
History
Augustus Eugene "Gene" Staley (25 February 1867 – 26 December 1940) founded a business of repacking and selling cornstarch under his own Cream brand in Baltimore in 1898. On 6 November 1906, he incorporated the business as A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company (A. E. Staley) in order to start his own production of food starch. In 1909, Gene Staley purchased an inoperative cornstarch plant in Decatur, Illinois. He paid $45,000 and spent three years rebuilding and upgrading the plant with capital that he had raised from stockholders. The factory began processing on March 12, 1912.
A. E. Staley became one of the largest processors of corn in the United States, second only to Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), also based in Decatur, Illinois. It also processed soybeans under a partnership agreement with ADM at its Decatur, Illinois plant. ADM, through a subsidiary, owned 7.4% of A. E. Staley and would often assist A. E. Staley in filling corn syrup orders for CPC International when the company was in short supply of product. Both companies also had joint ventures producing corn sweeteners in Central America.
A. E. Staley also produced many famous food and household brands including Cream Corn Starch, Staley Pancake and Waffle Syrup, Sta-Puf fabric softener, Sta-Flo liquid starch and Sno Bol toilet bowl cleaner. The food and household brands were subsequently sold to Purex Industries, Inc. in 1981. Presently, only Cream Corn Starch (Conagra Brands), Sta-Flo liquid starch (Henkel) and Sno Bol toilet bowl cleaner (Armaly Brands) continues to exist.
In 1985, A. E. Staley purchased CFS Continental, a wholesale grocery company, for $360 million. A. E. Staley stated a need to diversify away from bulk food processing. After the acquisition, A. E. Staley changed its name to Staley Continental, Inc. (until 1993).
In 1988, British company Tate & Lyle acquired 90% of A. E. Staley for $1.42 billion. Prior to the purchase, Tate & Lyle announced that it planned to sell CFS Continental to SYSCO, another wholesale grocer, for $700 million to help fund the acquisition. In 2000, Tate & Lyle acquired the remaining 10% of the company.
In 2005, the company changed its name to Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas LLC (Tate & Lyle Primary Products business).
In July 2021, Tate & Lyle announced it was spinning off Tate & Lyle Primary Products (formerly, Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas LLC) into a new company to be known as Primary Products Ingredients Americas LLC (Primient). Tate & Lyle will maintain 50% ownership of Primient and the remaining 50% will be owned by KPS Capital Partners (including board and management control). The transcation was completed by the end of the first quarter of 2022.