Michigan Sugar's facility in Croswell. The Croswell factory has undergone recent upgrades to increase its sugarbeet slicing capacity. (Robert Creenan/Huron Daily Tribune)

CROSWELL — Michigan Sugar’s Croswell factory has added some upgrades to help with the current sugarbeet slicing campaign.

The $13 million additions include new beet receiving, washing, and chip recovery stations.

Rob Clark, the director of communications and community relations for Michigan Sugar, said these additions will increase the factory’s sugarbeet slicing capacity by 50%, from 4,000 tons per day to 6,000 tons per day.

“They’re designed to send cleaner beets to the factory for slicing,” Clark said. “The cleaner the beet, the more sugar we can extract.”

The sugarbeets used to be cleaned in a tub-style washer, but they will now be cleaned with a high-pressure roller spray table.

Factory work like this takes place during the intercampaign period, which is the in-between period of when sugarbeet slicing campaigns take place, usually in the spring and summer.

The Croswell factory has been undergoing various upgrades for the past five years that have cost about $65 million. Some of the other upgrades involve the slicers, the carbonation filtration system, heat exchangers, evaporators, juice tanks, and sugar handling and cooling systems.

There is also a new set of piling grounds in development on 40 acres of the factory grounds, which will help create more beet storage.

Clark said that Michigan Sugar’s other facilities in Bay City, Caro, and Sebewaing receive new investments every year as well in order to keep them state of the art.

“Those factories were all built in the turn of the century, the 20th century,” Clark said. “They are all at least 120 years old and are some of the oldest of their kind in the world.”

Clark said that this year’s sugarbeet slicing campaign has raised some challenges in keeping people safe, with extra safety precautions in place, but that has not slowed down the slicing at all.

The campaign had one of Michigan Sugar’s earliest starts back in August, with 162,000 acres harvested and 4.8 million tons of sugarbeets expected to be sliced.

Michigan Sugar’s expectation this year is to process 1.1 billion pounds of sugar from the sugarbeets.

The Croswell facility has 200 total employees working there, full-time and for the campaign.

Robert Creenan has been a news reporter for the Huron Daily Tribune since April 2019.   Prior to arriving at the Tribune, Robert was a news reporter with the Cortland Standard in Cortland, New York.    He has a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism with a creative writing minor from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.   He is a fan of soccer, Buffalo sports, bike riding, and esports.