Our people, communities & partners

The British beet sugar industry is a cornerstone of the local economy in the East of England, the East Midlands, and Yorkshire. It supports around 7,000 jobs within the UK economy.

We’re committed to being a good neighbour in all our communities and are proud to support our people in using their time and skills in the local community. This also means ensuring all our people go home safely to their families and friends every day.

We’re extremely passionate and proud of the work that we do, and its especially rewarding when this is recognised externally.

 

 

Our Recent Awards Successes

Key areas of focus...

Safety and health

Embracing diversity

Positive community impact

Making Sense
of Sugar

Safety and health

Safety and health

Safety in our operations continues to be non-negotiable; it is a fundamental part of the way we do business. Employee health and safety is an area where we have a solid track record across the business, and we are dedicated to respecting human rights and delivering high standards on health, safety and education.

We have recently rolled out a new safety training programme to all our colleagues around ‘personal choices’ in which your own personal risk perceptions are challenged.

We have also improved connectivity across our sites to allow our site teams and managers to take the control room with them and access it via mobile devices to get real-time updates on what’s happening across all four factories.

Embracing diversity

We want our business to be a place where everyone can thrive within a culture of inclusion, and one that empowers and respects each and every employee. We have a range of internal initiatives to support diversity and inclusion, alongside employee wellbeing, and mental and physical health.

Positive community impact

Positive community impact

We encourage our colleagues to do what they can to support our local communities, and each year we allocate funds to each site to help local causes. Over the past five years we’ve given around £150,000 to local community groups and projects, charities, schools, sporting teams and other great causes across East Anglia and the East Midlands. In addition, some team members may give up their time to support local causes, repairing essential equipment or community facilities.

Each year colleagues are entitled to a day’s paid leave so they can volunteer for a charity close to their heart, and we also support colleague fundraising by matching what they raise up to £250.

In addition to these activities, we are committed to ensuring local people have opportunities with local employers. We have signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant which is a promise to the nation that as a business we support the armed forces community.

Making Sense of sugar

Making Sense of sugar

Our ‘Making Sense of Sugar’ campaign has been active for around 10 years and was launched to help inform and educate people about sugar and the role it can play as part of a healthy balanced diet.

Its aim is to provide information based on robust science for everyone, so that we can all make informed choices about what we choose to consume. Find out more about our activities in this area here.

From testing your knowledge with sugar quizzes, to guidance on portion sizes and daily activity levels, take a look at www.makingsenseofsugar.com/en-gb for more.

Latest alerts

Stay up to date on our latest sustainability activities and considerations.

Awards success for Wissington factory

6th March 2026

Huge congratulations to our team from Wissington who scooped not just one but TWO awards at the West Norfolk Mayoral Business Awards. 

Firstly to Molly for being awarded Apprentice of the Year - we can’t wait to see how you progress through the rest of your apprenticeship! And secondly, to the site team for taking home the Environmental Champion award! 

Well deserved recognition for all the hard work our teams do to develop the next generation of talent, and in making our sites as efficient as possible and always having the environment at the forefront.

Spreading festive cheer

18th December 2025

Supporting our colleagues to have a positive impact in the community is something we're passionate about, and lately our teams have been spreading festive cheer in several ways. 

From wearing Christmas jumpers, to providing over 100 gifts for children in emergency housing, to visiting local care homes to spend time with residents, playing board games, tree decorating, carol singing and dancing!

A huge thanks to all those involved and we hope we've been able to make this time of year a little more special! 

Macmillan coffee morning

1st October 2025

Our Peterborough head office got involved in the Macmillan coffee morning with a bake sale. In total an amazing £541.69 was raised! Thank you to everyone who baked and to everyone who donated!

Rising Star at the Food and Drink Federation Awards 2025!

11th September 2025

Huge congratulations to Vlad Racins, combustion technician from our Bury St Edmunds factory who was awarded Rising Star at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Awards 2025! 

Bury Pre-Silo employees support local primary school

13th August 2025

Nine employees from our Bury sugar factory volunteered at a local primary school to help with some maintenance, including putting up posts for hammocks, laying slabs, painting fences plus other general repairs and cleaning.

The primary school commented: 'Thank you so much to British Sugar who sent volunteers to help us create a calm place for the children. We are very pleased with our calm and stillness garden and love our pond and hammocks. Thank you so much'

Food bank support

15th July 2025

It's been a pleasure to be involved with Nourishing Norfolk, a local food bank that focuses on supplying affordable food to communities across Norfolk. So far, they have 26 food hubs that have supplied over 38,000 customers, which equates to over15,000 households.

Food bank support

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Case studies

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