Tea and coffee drinkers risk paying higher prices for sugar due to the merger of two of the country’s biggest producers, regulators have warned.
Tate & Lyle owner T&L Sugars (TLS) announced plans to buy Whitworths late last year.
But the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) yesterday threatened to block the deal over fears it will push up sugar prices.
It said TLS’s takeover of part of cooperative conglomerate Tereos, which owns Whitworths, may ‘lead to a substantial lessening of competition’ and gave the firms five working days to offer a solution.
TLS refines and distributes sugar and similar products to supermarkets, wholesales, hotels and cafes in the UK.
Leaving a bitter taste: The Competition and Markets Authority has threatened to block the merger deal over fears it will push up sugar prices
The part of Tereos it plans to buy packages and distributes sugar to UK buyers. The CMA said the only other competitor which supplies packed sugar is British Sugar, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, which also owns Primark.
Supermarkets could end up paying more for sugar, which could increase prices on the shelves for customers, it said.
