JUNE 2019 GBF – BRITISH SUGAR
Great British
Factories
This month, we look at how sugar by any other name and
Britain’s fi rst sugar factory, Cantley
factory, in Norfolk, was built by The
Rossum, who acquired thousands of acres of
land around Norfolk, where he built Dutchstyle
harvest and house the horses.
In the 1920s, 17 other factories were built,
nationalised the entire sugar beet crop processing
industry, all companies were put under the same
banner of the ‘British Sugar Corporation’ in 1936.
All factories were amalgamated once the Sugar
Industry (Reorganisation) Act took eff ect. This
helped form strong relationships with British
farmers, all growing domestic crop.
As part of the war eff ort, the Women’s
Institute used the sugar made at the factories
during WW2 to make jams and preservatives. The
factories also produced live-stock feed as a biproduct
during the war, in the form of dried sugar
the sugar itself.
Early in 1950 the Corporation decided to
in place a fi ve year plan. Completed ahead of
the replacement of much of the plants.
its sugar products, which is how, in 1972, Silver
The government remained a shareholder in
the industry until 1981 when it sold its share. In
1982 the word ‘Corporation’ was taken from the
became a Public Limited Company, trading as
British Sugar.
Also in 1981, the Ely, Felsted, Nottingham and
Selby factories closed after a reduction in the
allowed sugar quota. This was followed by the
and Brigg in 1991, King’s Lynn in 1994, Bardney
and Ipswich in 2001, Kidderminster in 2002, and
Allscott and York in 2007.
S&W Berisford made a second takeover
bid for British Sugar, the fi rst one having been
unsuccessful. The second time was successful,
and British Sugar was considered to be the
cornerstone of Berisford’s newly created Bristar
British Sugar has used a few – would taste just as sweet
year, Silver Spoon developed a lower-calorie
sugar called Half Spoon. There were multiple
adverts, with a range of people saying it was just
as “excellenté” as regular sugar.
An artifi cial sweetener was produced in
2000, starting the ball rolling to acquire
sweetener brand Sucron. Silver Spoon later
released Truvia in 2012, a sweetener with
a sugar like texture, and a new range of
agave syrups more recently in 2017. In 2005,
still process beet – Bury St Edmunds (Suff olk),
Cantley, Newark-on-Trent (Nottinghamshire)
and Wissington (Western Norfolk), the largest
such plant in Europe.
The British Sugar Corporation
became British Sugar in 1982
1972
was the year the Silver Spoon
brand was created
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Group. However, due to fi nancial
British Sugar Corporation in 1912. It was
managed by a Dutchman named Joanness Van
style barns and stables to store the sugar beet
all managed by separate fi rms. The sugar was
made using sugar beets, and when Parliament
diffi culties in 1991, Berisford sold the company
to Associated British Foods (ABF) on 2 January.
In 1995 the derelict sugar factory in
Peterborough was used in the James Bond
movie goldeneye, starring Pierce Brosnan. That
beet pulp, which almost proved to be as useful as
invest in modernising all the factories – putting
schedule in 1954, this £9 million investment saw
The company decided to use a retail name for
Spoon was created. Silver Spoon sold granulated,
caster, icing and cubed sugar, and still does today.
company name and the British Sugar Corporation
closure of a site at Spalding in 1989, Peterborough
Silver Spoon became the offi cial sponsor of
Macmillan’s ‘World’s Biggest Coff ee Morning’.
Today, British Sugar operates four factories,
which produce the same amount of sugar as
when it operated 18 factories. Silver Spoon is
continually expanding its baking range, now
producing golden syrup, royal icing sugar, and
preserving sugar. British Sugar makes around
two-thirds of the sugar eaten in Britain’s, with
the rest being imported from Tate & Lyle, an
American company.
Of the 18 factories that were under the
banner of the British Sugar Corporation, four
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