The factory was last part of Iscal Sugar, a competitor of Raffinerie Tirlemontoise.

In 1869 the partnership limited by shares Sucrerie Jules De Cock et Compagnie was founded by contract.

[6] Contracting with farmers was not easy, because they often did not know how to grow the beet, but were aware that it could exhaust the ground.

[6] In such circumstances, the fact that the Lippens family owned so much land in the immediate vicinity would have come in handy to ensure a steady supply of beet.

Sugar beet from nearby fields could economically be brought to the factory by wagon or cart, but this was limited to a distance of no more than about 5-6 km.

In the 1870s, a good system of inland navigation allowed a company to bring in sugar beet from dozens of kilometers away.

The public company Naamloze vennootschap Sucrerie de Moerbeke was founded when the partnership that owned the factory was about to end.

After the changes, the factory produced sugar that was so pure that it could be sold directly to consumers and manufacturers.

The management had two members of the Lippens family, but also representatives from the Wittouck factory in Zelzate.

[12] Soon after, it had become a child company or simple production location of the Sucrerie et Raffinerie de Moerbeke.

The holding was dominated by the Lippens family, which brought in its shares in the companies that had been merged, but also the Escanaffles Sugar Factory.

The shares in Suikerfabrieken van Vlaanderen were divided equally between Finasucre and Raffinerie Tirlemontoise.

[14] The late 1920s crisis in the sugar industry hit the Suikerfabrieken van Vlaanderen very hard.

[15] In 1935 Centrale Suiker Maatschappij sold its factory Sucrerie et Raffinerie de Lillo to Suikerfabrieken van Vlaanderen.

In 1982 Finasucre acquired the rest of the shares in the Moerbeke Sugar Factory / Suikerfabrieken van Vlaanderen.

In order to smoothen the transition to an open market, the EU organized the 2006/2010 restructuring program for companies that were willing to end their sugar production.

At the time, most sugar beet processed in Moerbeke came from areas near Veurne, Poperinge and Oudenaarde.

[22] On a small section of track that was left near the station stands a Deutz 55815 Switcher locomotive from 1954.