Wissington Sugar Factory. Part 2: 1971-2025.

Founded one hundred years ago, the Wissington sugar factory was the brainchild of local entrepreneur Mr. W. T. (Bill) Towler. In our previous post we described the first 45 years history of this notable local landmark. Here we bring the story up to date with the last 55 years.

1971 saw the final stages of a three year, £10m reconstruction and expansion of the Wissington sugar factory. This event was part of  the rationalisation of sugar factories in Britain by the British Sugar Corporation and its desire by to shorten the processing season for sugar beet. The layout of the new factory would guarantee a quicker turn round of beet-laden lorries coming from a 30mile radius. Smaller factories were closed, while the Washington and York factories were expanded. Expansion was also necessary as farmers were increasing yields per acre of sugar beet and there had been a small increase in the acreage under beet. Moreover, at the time it seemed likely that the UK would join the European Economic Community (EEC), and it was forecast that, because of the ending of Commonwealth Sugar Agreement (see below right) increased processing capacity of beet would be necessary. Through this expansion Wissington acquired an additional capacity of 4,200 tonnes per day to a total of 7,200 tonnes per day . The factory site’s boundaries we’re also expanded.

Wissington was chosen for expansion as it was in the heart of a beet growing area (at this time Norfolk grew a quarter of all British sugar beet). It was also an area with modernised faming practices. The lead contractor for the reconstruction was John Laing Construction Limited. The Fens are amongst the most difficult places in England on which to build large constructions and most of the new facilities were constructed on concrete piling. The most innovative aspect of the new site was the introduction of a Kent K70 computer system which was used to control various processes as well as producing management reports.

In November 1974 the BSC called upon the army to help harvest the beet. Crops on Marshland silt and Fenland soils were in jeopardy. Harvesters were bogged down, and some farms resorted to pulling up and topping the beet by hand. Yields in the Wissington area were down to 10 to 11 tons per acre as against the expected 15 ½  tons.

In the summer of 1975 further substantial expansion plans were announced for the Wissington plant. That would have an increase of 20% production. British Sugar announced that their £15m investment in their 17 plants would meet their aim of making the UK 50% self-sufficient in sugar and to become the largest sugar producing company in the world. The CEO of BSC, Kenneth Sinclair said that “before entry into the EEC BSC had operated under the 1956 Sugar Act which restricted the financial structure on the UK sugar beet industry….The ‘Yes’ vote for joining the EEC ….gave the go ahead we wanted for massive expansion and modernisation.”

In 1977 at the start of the “campaign” workers in the BSC factories went on a work to rule to improve their working conditions. This was at the time of the Labour Government of Jim Callahan and the ‘Social Contract’ which some readers will recall. At this time workers in BSC factories, including the 400 or so at Wissington, were expected to work 7 days a week for the four months of the campaign. The list of workers’ demands included one day a week off during tis period. (P.S. At the same time UK farmworkers were calling for a £60 a week minimum wage as against their  existing low wage of £39.)

During this period the Whittington plant was paying 1,500 famers £12m a year and local authorities £124,000. Its permanent workforce was 315 rising to 470 during the 18 week campaign period when there were 800 daily deliveries of beet per day.

1978. In January, when the last of the beet had been sliced at Wissington, the workforce turned their attention to the off-season expansion of the factory. The enlarged factory would process 10,000 tons a day, making it on a par with the unit at Bury St. Edmunds.

In 1981 the government sold its share in the British Sugar Corporation to approximatley 150 city institutions for £44 million. Prior to this, the government’s stake had been reduced from 36% to 24% in 1977. The full sale in 1981 completed the privatisation of the company, which became British Sugar plc in 1982.

In 1982 S & W Berisford made a successful bid for the company which became part of the Bristar Group and BSC became ‘British Sugar.’

(Above: Lynn Advertiser, 01 November 1983)

During the summer of 1987 it took just 12 days to build a new 50m high 25,000 tonnes sugar silo at Wissington. Costing £2.9m the silo was jacked up in stages and was the seventh silo on the site bringing its storage capacity to 97 tonnes. It went up in 25, 12-hour shifts and required 21,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete. (see below)

in 1991 British Sugar was sold to Associated British Foods (ABF) which remains its parent company.

In the early 1990s £15m was invested in the plant (see construction below) making it  the largest sugar plant in Europe, if not the world, with 1,000 lorry loads arriving each day.

June 1992 saw the delivery of a monster prescaler to the site. It  took 12 hours to reach the factory gates from King’s Lynn docks travelling at 3.13mph. The image below shows the load being transported through West Winch.

By 1994 British Shugar was supplying roughly 50% of the UK’s needs.

1998 saw the installation of a £30m gas turbine powered boiler house. As well as providing power for the plant and excess to the National Grid, it also produced the steam required for the sugar process.

2007 saw Wissington becoming the first sugar refinery to produce ‘green’ fuel from sugar beet. The £20m bioethanol plant sits beside the main factory and aims to produce 5% of the nation’s green fuel. Combined with the factory’s combined heat and power plant there was a saving of 60% carbon emissions. The installation of a biothenal plant in 2007 enabled the factory to convert sugar and starches into the renewable fuel, ethanol. This was used to grow tomatoes in a vast 44 acre greenhouse up until 2017 when production was switched to growing cannabis sativa for medicinal use.

In 2023 the Wissington factory continued to reduce energy consumption and had halved the amount of steam it produced.

Above: image from the 2024 ‘campaign’

In May of 2025, British Sugar received £7.5m in funding from the Industrial Transformation Fund. This will help overhaul the crop drying process and reduce carbon emissions by a further 25%. The funding is part of a £37m project to replace gas dryers by steam dryers. Future plans for the company as a whole include a switch of tankers from diesel to biofuels as well as reducing road miles and increasing payload to reduce emissions.  

Sources

• British Newspaper Archive: www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
• British Sugar website: www.britishsugar.co.uk
• The Land Worker Newsletter, November 1974
• Facebook post by Billy Bunty Buckenham 24 April 2021

Article: Marion Clarke. Research: Lauren Arellano. Stoke Ferry & District History Group

Click here to read Part 1 of the factory’s history: 1925-1970