Sweet science to take over as last beet factory gets space-age upgrade

THE sprawling 285-acre Mallow Sugar Factory complex yesterday looked like Cape Canaveral before the launch of a shuttle space mission.

People wearing hard hats and yellow bibs moved back and forth. Forklift trucks and other vehicles traversed the grounds. And men with maps spoke into mobile phones.

It’s all part of the build-up to the September 19 launch of the 2005-2006 beet processing campaign at what is the country’s last remaining sugar factory, following the closure of the Carlow plant in March.

Irish Sugar embarked on a €25 million upgrade of the Mallow plant to world class standards for the processing of 1.3 million tonnes of beet from 3,700 growers into 199,000 tonnes of sugar. The company’s 185 full time staff at Mallow will be augmented by 70 seasonal employees.

But the huge task of upgrading the plant to take the extra volume resulting from the Carlow plant’s closure has involved 280 extra personnel working on site for months.

Irish Sugar managing director Dr Sean Brady said the company’s team in Mallow has done a magnificent job with its leadership of the project and the campaign is set to start on schedule on September 19.

Heavy plant and equipment dismantled in Carlow and transported to Mallow has been installed. New equipment from Germany including a beet washer, screens, stone separators and grass catchers has been installed.

A conveyor to take the beet into the factory is in place. An extra weighbridge for beet traffic is being installed to eliminate congestion and cut queuing times at the entrance. Irish Sugar has agreed plans with local authority engineers for an off-road queuing area adjacent to the factory’s beet intake entrance.

Most of the beet crop, worth an estimated €70 million to growers, will be transported to Mallow by road. Some will also be moved by rail from a depot at Wellingtonbridge, Co Wexford. The plant will be geared to process 11,000 tonnes of beet a day.

Ben O’Keeffe, Human Resources Manager, Irish Sugar Mallow, said the intake of beet at the factory will begin on September 17 for the September 19 launch of the processing campaign.

With the beet crop growing strongly and an upgraded plant now almost ready to receive it, the countdown words for the busy Mallow site yesterday were straight out of Houston itself - T minus 24 days and counting.