Around 5,000 lorry loads of sugar beet are delivered daily to British Sugar's nine factories during the processing season known as the campaign, this is completed by the end of February.
Many factories now have the facility to hold thick juice in large storage tanks.
This thick juice can then be processed into crystalline sugar outside the normal campaign period. Each of British Sugar's factories operates a power generation plant like a small power station. Coal, oil or gas are used to fuel water boilers producing steam at high pressure. This steam is used to drive turbo-alternators generating electricity to power the factory. At several factories, more electricity is generated than the factory requires and the excess is sold to the national grid supply companies.