Our businesses
around the world
our group includes 21 plants in 9 countries, employing 35,000 people
ABF Sugar is an international group with operations across Europe and Africa.
The divisional headquarters are based in the UK and South Africa, plus nine operating businesses: Azucarera (Spain), British Sugar (United Kingdom), Illovo Sugar South Africa, Illovo Sugar Malawi, Illovo Sugar Kigali (Rwanda), Kilombero Sugar Company (Tanzania), Ubombo Sugar (Eswatini), Vivergo Fuels (United Kingdom), and Zambia Sugar.
To find more information on our businesses, please click on the panels below.
Azucarera is the leading sugar company in Iberia, with sugar beet sourced from over 4,800 growers in Spain. The company has three sugar beet plants and a logistics and packaging plant in northern Spain, as well as a research and development centre. Its production centre in southern Spain includes a raw sugar cane refinery, sugar beet plant and logistics centre, plus a power plant serving the national grid.
British Sugar is the leading supplier of sugar to the food and beverage markets of the UK and Ireland. As the sole processor of the UK’s sugar beet crop, it turns around 8 million tonnes of beet into around 1.4 million tonnes of sugar and a variety of co-products at its four plants annually. British Sugar was the first company in the UK to manufacture bioethanol.
Vivergo is one of Europe’s biggest bioethanol producers and the United Kingdom’s largest single-source supplier of animal feed. It was formed in 2007 to develop a world-scale wheat-fed bioethanol plant in Hull, which reached full-scale production in 2014. Today, Vivergo serves one-half of UK demand for bioethanol, and manufactures enough high-protein animal food to feed almost 20% of the United Kingdom’s total dairy herd.
ILLOVO SUGAR (MALAWI) plc is listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange. ABF Sugar holds 76% of the company's issued share capital, while public and other institutional investors own the remaining shares. It cultivates approximately 1.8 million tons of sugar cane, which, along with around 350,000 tons produced by Malawian smallholder farmers, results in the production of about 250,000 tons of sugar.
ILLOVO SUGAR (SOUTH AFRICA) (Pty) Ltd produces more than 550,000 tons of raw and refined sugar from 4.8 million tons of sugar cane cultivated by independent growers and a small tonnage of cane produced by its own agricultural operations. Operations include the cultivation of sugar cane, the production of raw, brown, refined sugar and syrup, and the downstream products of furfural and its derivatives, ethyl alcohol and lactulose.
Previously an export market, sales operations in Kigali now provide local consumers with access to the well-known “Trusted Quality” brand of sugars across the Southern African region.
Kilombero Sugar Company Limited (KSCL) is Tanzania's largest producer of sugar under the "Bwana Sukari" brand name. The Company operates two agricultural estates and sugar mills, producing 126,000 tons of sugar annually.
Zambia Sugar is the country's leading sugar producer, serving domestic and regional markets. It produces a wide range of sugar products under the renowned Whitespoon brand. Zambia Sugar is the largest single-mill cane sugar producer in Africa. It is listed on the Lusaka Securities Exchange with 25% held as free float by institutional and private investors. ABF Sugar holds 75% of the Company’s shares.
Ubombo Sugar is the oldest sugar mill in the country. ABF Sugar holds a 60% share, and Tibiyo Taka Ngwane holds the remaining 40%. Ubombo Sugar operates one agricultural estate, factory, and refinery and specialises in milling and producing raw, refined, and speciality sugar products for retail consumption and industrial use.
