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Sugar producer Iscal is a major player in the Western European market. Today, the company from Hainaut produces no less than a quarter of the sugar in our country and is getting ready for the future. With a new investment of 28 million euros, Iscal is tripling its storage capacity.
"The expansion of our warehouse has two advantages," says Managing Director Jérôme Lippens. "First, it will allow us to respond better to fluctuations in the sugar market, which will also benefit sugar growers. But above all, it will significantly reduce the energy bill, by about 30%."
Today, Iscal has two silos, of 40,000 and 6,000 tons. The new warehouse has space for 80,000 tons of sugar.
All silos together have a capacity of 126 kilotons: the storage capacity for sugar will thus be tripled at the Fontenoy site. The investment amounts to 28 million euros.
Today, the current storage capacity for finished sugar is insufficient to accommodate the entire production of a sugar beet campaign (200,000 t).
Furthermore, Iscal also foresees the installation of a 3.8 MWh wind turbine. "That renewable energy source complements the existing biogas production, which already represents 15% of our energy needs today. The goal is to work toward zero emissions," said Robert Torck, Iscal's CEO.
Iscal was founded in 1993. Its name is an amalgamation of the abbreviations of Isera and Scaldis, the Latin names of the Iron and the Scheldt, which form the supply basin of its factory in Fontenoy, Hainaut. It supplies sugar to B2B industries such as Lotus, Materne, Alpo and Desobry. Some 80% of Iscal's sugar is destined for Belgian customers.
From mid-September to mid-January, farmers deliver beets to the Iscal factory, which processes them into sugar.
With a processing capacity of 12,000 tons of beet per day and above-average energy performance, the Fontenoy sugar factory is one of the most efficient factories in Europe.
