British Sugar has unveiled plans to create 25 new jobs at its Cantley sugar refinery in Norwich as part of a £35M investment to enable it to process imported raw cane sugar.
According to a planning application submitted by the firm, the move would allow the processing of raw brown cane sugar from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) into white sugar over the summer. That would be outside the annual sugar beet campaign period (September to March).
If the plan goes ahead, construction is expected to take about a year, with processing commencing in spring/summer 2010, said a spokesman. “At this stage, we are just conducting a feasibility study, so it’s not a done deal yet.”
Recent changes in the EU Regime for sugar have cut the amount of beet sugar that may be produced in the EU while encouraging imports of raw sugar from LDCs into the UK, he added. “The amount of sugar processed at Cantley has been going down in recent years, so this will bring volumes up again.”
Deliveries of raw sugar will be up to 80 loads per day operated by a fleet of 12 British Sugar contracted lorries and 20 drivers. The new buildings planned will include a raw sugar warehouse, a dry lime press building, a decolourisation plant and falling film evaporators.
Built in 1912, Cantley was the first sugar factory in the UK. Today, it processes more than 1.2M tonnes of beet supplied from 925 local farms.
Separately, up to 68 jobs at the Silver Spoon packing plant at Newark could be lost next year under proposals to transfer the work to Bury St Edmunds, said the company. “We’re still consulting staff, but the move would make our packing operations more efficient.”