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British Sugar is putting customers firmly at the centre of its operations as it delivers on its ambition to be the supplier of choice for sugar in the UK.
The business processes around eight million tonnes of sugar beet and produces up to 1.4 million tonnes of sugar annually. It has been strengthening its operations for over a decade, to succeed in the more competitive market arising from the 2017 EU industry deregulation. This includes continuous investment in its four factories which has totalled £500m over the past decade, driving efficiency improvements, reducing energy consumption and emissions, and improving operational flexibility.
Listening to what customers want – and delivering it – is pivotal to British Sugar’s strategy.
Complementing the efficiency achieved via its ongoing supply chain investment, the team is committed to delivering quality products when customers need them, on time and in full.
Key to this has been providing customers with greater market insight through regular and reliable information on UK, EU and world sugar markets. The team has also focused on changing how it contracts with customers to introduce more options and to help reduce volatility in pricing and create longer-term relationships.
Other recent initiatives included developing a broader range of product format and traded sugars, investing in its customer services team, automating warehousing for quicker response times and extending logistics operations to allow bespoke scheduling. In 2019/20 these changes boosted service levels and sales volumes.
Collaboration with growers has helped achieve over 25% improvement in beet sugar yields in the last ten years.
British Sugar processed more than 7.8 million tonnes of beet, in 290,000 deliveries, from more than 3,000 growers
In addition to focusing on customers, British Sugar also works closely with its growers and their representative body, NFU Sugar, to drive improvements and innovation.
Such collaboration has helped achieve over 25% improvement in beet sugar yields in the last ten years and this year achieving Europe’s longest ever continuous sugar processing ‘campaign’. The campaign lasted 208 days, up from 194 days last year. It saw British Sugar process more than 7.8 million tonnes of beet, in 290,000 deliveries, from more than 3,000 growers.
As it looks to the future, British Sugar faces challenges and opportunities with an unswerving customer focus; security of supply by working in partnership with its growers; sound operations; and a robust leadership team.