Bury St Edmunds sugar factory, built in 1925, plays a major role in the prosperity of the area, as an employer, a ratepayer and a user of local services.

British Sugar pays the 1,200 growers supplying beet to the factory about £48 million in an average year. Approximately £750,000 is paid in business rates.

Bury St Edmunds factory employs a permanent workforce of 150 rising to 225 during the processing campaign which lasts, on average, about 160 days. The factory operates 24 hours a day throughout the campaign.

The factory has an installed capacity to process 13,000 tonnes of beet a day. Around 1.95 million tonnes of beet are processed every year, with more than 660 lorry loads accepted each day.

The daily output of crystal sugar is about 1,300 tonnes. Sugar produced at Bury St Edmunds is stored in five silos with a combined storage capacity of 70,000 tonnes. Some of the beet processed is stored as thick juice in seven large tanks with a combined capacity of 230,000 tonnes to be fully refined into crystal sugar during the late spring and early summer.

Bulk sugar is conveyed at the rate of 2,500 tonnes per week to the adjacent Silver Spoon packaging complex for caster and granulated packet production.  Sugar is also conveyed to the neighbouring milling plant at a rate of around 800 tonnes per week for the production of speciality milled products.

Molassed sugar beet feed, a high energy animal feed sold under the Trident Feeds label, is also produced. About 140,000 tonnes of dried molassed sugar beet feed is produced each campaign, plus 35,000 tonnes of molasses.

About 70,000 tonnes of LimeX70 is produced each campaign and sold to farmers to correct acidity, add some nutrients, and improve the structure of the soil.

A newly constructed boiler house utilises the latest gas turbine technology to produce steam and electricity. The plant provides 14.5Mw of electricity for the whole site and exports a further 50Mw of electricity to the national supply network.