Tongaat Hulett has confirmed that its three South African mills –­ Maidstone, Amatikulu and Felixton – have ranked as the top three nationally for sugar recovery in the current sugar milling season to date.

The company describes the achievement as “outstanding”, noting that it highlights the scale of its operational turnaround since entering business rescue in October 2022, confirming that its mills are now not only stable but leading performance across the broader South African sugar sector.

Tongaat Hulett CEO Gavin Dalgleish, together with the business rescue practitioners, recently met with grower representatives in a series of engagements.

These meetings focused on sharing updates about the company’s progress under business rescue, as well as the significant improvements seen across its milling and refining operations

The capital injection of about R1.45-billion over the past three years, secured through the Industrial Development Corporation, focused on rehabilitating infrastructure at Tongaat’s three mills, refinery and animal feeds plant, which had suffered years of underinvestment.

The company says the result is a marked improvement in operational performance, with cane being crushed much more efficiently and reliably than before and a renewed sense of confidence among growers, staff and industry partners.

The capital upgrades were accompanied by the recruitment of key technical staff and an investment in training and development of employees.

“The investments made were not just in machinery, but also in our people – and the results are clear. Our teams are now less focused on reactive maintenance and more focused on performance improvement. It’s this shift in mindset that’s powering real, sustainable change,” says Dalgleish.

Together, these efforts have translated into measurable, year-on-year improvements in key production and efficiency metrics for the current milling season, says Tongaat.

According to independent industry benchmarking, the company says its performance in these metrics has placed its mills among the top in the country – exceeding the industry benchmark standards by a greater margin than anyone else.

This includes the recoverable value metric, which measures the value of molasses and sugar recovered from the sugarcane delivered by an individual grower, as well as the crystal recovery efficiency metric, which measures the percentage of sucrose extracted from the cane that is successfully crystallised into marketable sugar.

During the meetings, Tongaat says it became clear that growers placed strong value on consistent, high-efficiency milling, as a reliable mill is clearly worth more to them than any other short-term price incentives.

Growers who attended the sessions highlighted their support for the company’s new trajectory.

“Any grower would have noticed that the [Maidstone] mill is certainly performing better than it has in the past decade.

“The investments in the mills give us great confidence that we’re going to have a mill capable of crushing our crop. That is crucial, because a high-performing mill gives growers the confidence to invest in and expand their own farms,” says Maidstone senior grower and local SA Canegrowers representative Pratish Sharma.

“There is no doubt that, going forward, Maidstone will be the mill of choice. It will be a game changer in the industry,” adds Maidstone Mill group board chairperson Nkosinathi Msweli, who also attended the meetings.

At the meetings, growers were updated on the implementation of the business rescue plan, which is nearing completion.

Tongaat says Vision has made payment to the lender group of the balance of the purchase consideration relating to the acquisition by Vision of the lender group claims and security, culminating in the lender group and Vision confirming the transfer of the lender group claims and security to Vision.

The company says finalisation of the sale of assets transaction is expected imminently, adding that this development underscores Tongaat Hulett’s progress toward financial and operational recovery under Vision ownership.

Tongaat also acknowledged ongoing industry-wide challenges, including declining cane supply volumes and damaging sugar imports owing to delayed adjustments to protective import tariffs.

“We have made extraordinary strides during business rescue, but there’s more work ahead. Cane supply needs to grow, and our industry requires proper tariff protection to remain competitive against dumped imports,” says Dalgleish.

“We are confident that, by working closely with growers and continuing to invest in performance, we can rebuild not only Tongaat, but the value chain around it so it remains a key economic contributor in South Africa, where it employs over 2 600 people and contributes R9.3-billion in GDP, as well as the broader region,” he concludes.