South Africa Edition 2

THE MARKET
With local sugar consumption topping 1.5 million
tons annually, there is no doubt that South Africans
have a sweet tooth. And the sugar we enjoy the most
is Huletts, South Africa’s No. 1 sugar brand.
Loved and trusted by more consumers than
any other sugar brand, Huletts is by far the oldest
branded sugar in South Africa, having been
manufactured under the same brand name since
1892.
Today the Huletts brand comprises four
distinct categories:
• Retail Pre-pack Category: This is the core
range and includes white and brown sugars
in a variety of pack sizes. The retail pre-pack
sugars target the South African mass market,
with an estimated household penetration of
almost 100%
• Retail Speciality Sugars: Also known as fancy
or creative sugars, this range is aimed at a
more discerning market and comprises icing,
castor, treacle, yellow and caramel sugars;
coloured crystals and cubes; and golden and
flavoured syrups
• Industrial Speciality Sugars: This category
includes a wide range of dry and liquid
sugars used in the food, catering, baking,
confectionery, pharmaceutical and beverage
industries
• A Non-nutritive Sweetener Range: Currently
comprising of Huletts EquiSweet and Huletts
SUGAlite
Taking the sweetness business beyond sugar,
the Huletts brand is now a complete range of
nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners.
ACHIEVEMENTS
South Africa’s favourite sugar brand has received
numerous accolades and boasts a growing list of
impressive credentials:
• Huletts has consistently improved its
performance in the Sunday Times/Markinor
Brands & Branding Survey and remains
firmly in the top ten food categories, as well
as ranking as one of the top ten brands in
South Africa
• An independent survey by Sunday Times/
Markinor in 2004 named Huletts the fourth
most admired food brand in South Africa and
the sixth favourite brand overall
• The ISO 9001:2000 rating is critical to the
future growth of the brand, signalling high
quality standards and world-class health,
safety and environmental procedures
• Tongaat Hulett Sugar is the only local
manufacturer of vending sugar and
the largest producer of sugar sachets
in South Africa
• Huletts EquiSweet is the first locally
produced artificial sweetener with a
superior taste profile
• In 2004 Huletts received the New
Product Development Award for
the most innovative product and
appropriate packaging for its inventive
SUGAlite product. Huletts SUGAlite
not only mimics the qualities of sugar
in the baking process; it also lowers
the Glycaemic Index
Huletts is also proud of a number of
significant firsts:
• In 1959, Huletts launched pre-packed
sugar in strong cardboard cartons for
the first time in South Africa
• Huletts was the first brand to produce and
market a brown icing sugar in South Africa
• Besides the innovation of SUGALite, Huletts
was the first brand to produce a low calorie
sweetener, Huletts EquiSweet, in a tubular
sachet format
• Huletts Golden Syrup was the first South
African syrup to be packaged in a 300g
bottle
HISTORY
While South Africa’s favourite sugar brand has
a proud heritage, its beginnings were rather
humble.
It all began in 1857, when the young James
Liege Hulett, just short of his nineteenth birthday,
set sail from England in search of his fortune.
He landed in Durban almost four months later,
having spent on his fare 20 of the 25 pounds
sterling he had borrowed from an uncle.
With only high hopes and a fiver in his pocket,
he had no way of knowing that he was destined
to found a sugar empire that would still carry his
name more than a century later.
In 1907, the older, possibly wiser James Hulett
founded the Amatikulu Sugar Mill, crushing
some 7,000 tons of cane in its first season. In
1910, a large central refinery was established in
Durban to process raw sugar from mills besides
Huletts’ own.
From small beginnings, the Huletts empire
grew to become a powerful feature of the South
African economic landscape. Sugar has been
manufactured under the brand name Huletts since
1892, embodying over a century of experience
that is continued to this day by Tongaat-Hulett
Sugar.