Sweet on sugar tax

A CLAMPDOWN on sugar has helped boost profits at natural sweetener maker pure Circle.

Sales rose 10pc to £99m in the year to the end of June, with profits up 20.8pc to £6.6m.

The US-based business, which uses stevia plants for its sugar substitute, gets about 20pc of its sales from the UK. Coca-Cola is among big brands to use the product in its drinks. Chief executive Magomet Malsagov said that since the sugar tax started in april in the UK, he had done more work with major drinks companies.

‘ our pipeline of projects has also gone up quite substantially,’ he said.