British Sugar plc is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods and the sole British producer of sugar from sugar beet, as well as medicinal

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

. British Sugar processes all sugar beet grown in the United Kingdom, and produces about two-thirds of the United Kingdom's quota of sugar, with the remainder produced by the brand Tate & Lyle, under licence to American Sugar Refining, and by imports. British Sugar and the growers fix a contract called the "Inter Professional Agreement" determining the price paid for beet grown and the allocation of growers' quotas. The National Farmers Union (NFU) is the negotiator for the growers.

History

Bury St Edmunds Rail Station, 26 Sep, 2012

Early history

The company was formed as the British Sugar Corporation in 1936, when the British parliament nationalised the entire sugar beet crop processing industry, under the banner of British Sugar Corporation. At this time, there were 13 separate companies with 18 factories across the country. In 1972, it began selling its sugar products under the name of Silver Spoon. In 1977, a

rights issue A rights issue or rights offer is a dividend of subscription rights to buy additional securities in a company made to the company's existing security holders. When the rights are for equity securities, such as shares, in a public company, it can b ...

decreased the government holding from 36% to 24%. In May 1982, the company name was shortened to British Sugar plc, and later that year it was taken over by Berisford International. After a crash in property values affected Berisford, it was sold to Associated British Foods (ABF) on 2 January 1991.

Closures

The sugar refinery in

Cupar Cupar ( ; gd, Cùbar) is a town, former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland. It lies between Dundee and Glenrothes. According to a 2011 population estimate, Cupar had a population around 9,000, making it the ninth-largest settlement in Fi ...

, Fife, closed in 1971 ending the growth and processing of sugar beet in Scotland; in its heyday in the mid-1930s, 1,500 farmers supplied the Cupar factory. In 1981, the Ely, Felsted,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

and

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...

factories closed after a reduction in the allowed sugar quota. This was followed by the closure of sites at Spalding in 1989,

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and

Brigg Brigg ( /'brɪg/) is a market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in the 2001 UK census, the population increased to 5,626 at the 2011 census. The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east–west tra ...

in 1991, King's Lynn in 1994,

Bardney Bardney is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 1,643 at the 2001 census increasing to 1,848 (including Southrey) at the 2011 census. The village sits on the e ...

and

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

in 2001,

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

in 2002, and

Allscott Allscott is a small village north west of Wellington, Shropshire. The River Tern flows by. It falls within the parish of Wrockwardine and the borough of Telford and Wrekin. Nearby is the small village of Walcot. Etymology The name derives of ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

in 2007. The site at Allscott, which opened in 1927, near

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, was closed because it "lacked scale" to be run economically, while the site at York,

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

(opened 1926), was closed due to the poor crop yields in

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

. Of the 18 factories which were owned by the British Sugar Corporation, only four still process beet - Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk), Cantley (in Norfolk, the second and first successful British sugar factory in 1912),

Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...

(Nottinghamshire) and Wissington (western Norfolk and the largest in Europe). The Bury site is also a major packaging plant for Silver Spoon. The 12 sites already closed have been sold and decommissioned to various degrees – many large concrete silos (for storing the major product, white granulated sugar) still remain even where the sites have been closed, including those at the

factory which was closed in 2002 and sold off in 2006. The concrete silos at the Ipswich site were demolished in 2018, 17 years after the site closed. Allscott has now been completely demolished. Spalding has been replaced by

Spalding power station Spalding Power Station is a 860 MW gas-fired power station one mile north of Spalding on West Marsh Road close to the River Welland. The current site provides enough electricity for one million households. History The power station, know ...

. BP and DuPont are working with British Sugar to build a bioethanol plant at BP's Hull site, as described in an announcement made in June 2007.

Operations

British Sugar is effectively the sole buyer of all of the sugar beet grown in Britain. This output comes from around 3,500 farmers throughout Britain. There is however a proposal to start growing sugar beet in Eastern Scotland again to produce bioethanol. British Sugar is a supplier of cannabis to

GW Pharmaceuticals GW Pharmaceuticals is a British pharmaceutics company known for its multiple sclerosis treatment product nabiximols (brand name, Sativex) which was the first natural cannabis plant derivative to gain market approval in any country. Another cannab ...

Management

The managing director, Paul Kenward, is married to

Victoria Atkins Victoria Mary Atkins (born 22 March 1976) is a British politician who has served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury since October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth an ...

MP.Mr P.R. Kenward and Miss V.M. Atkins - Engagements Announcements
in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' at announcements.telegraph.co.uk

References

External links

*
British Sugar at KidderminsterIpswich Sugar Factory
photos taken in 2006
Exploring British Sugar, Kidderminster

* {{Authority control Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1936 Food and drink companies established in 1936 Sugar companies Companies based in Peterborough Companies based in Cambridgeshire Associated British Foods 1936 establishments in the United Kingdom British Royal Warrant holders Sugar industry in the United Kingdom Agriculture companies of the United Kingdom