Abstract: The present invention relates to recombinant Escherichia coli (E. coli) host cells comprising, in relation to wild-type cells, at least one mutation selected from the group consisting of deletion of the gene relA (?relA); amino acid substitutions R290E and K292D in the protein guanosine-3?,5?-bis pyrophosphate 3?-pyrophosphohydrolase (bifunctional (p)ppGpp synthetase II; SpoT) (spo T[R290E;K292D]); and amino acid substitution G267C in the protein pyruvate dehydrogenase subunit E1 (AceE) (aceE[G267C]). Said recombinant host cells are characterized by increased sugar uptake rates that lead to increased productivity when using said cells for the production of biosynthetic products. The present invention further relates to respective methods for the biosynthetic production of a product of interest using said host cells.