The central factory then continued to operate as Sucrerie Tereos d'Escaudœuvres until 2023.

[1] The official name of the company that founded the factory was 'Sucrerie centrale de Cambrai'.

The surrounding area is farm land with much clay and lime, ideal for growing sugar beet.

Also, the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin is close by, which was important to get cheap coal.

The factory is now part of the cooperative industrial group Tereos, which bought its owner in 2002 and then liquidated the Sucrerie centrale de Cambrai company by merging it into Béghin-Say.

The juice is then transported to a central factory by means of a cast iron pipeline.

At the time, this greatly reduced road transport cost, which were very high for heavy cargo.

The engineer Jules Linard invented the transport of raw juice by pipeline.

With the advice of the lawyer Léon Estivan, Linard opted to establish a public company so he could raise enough money to implement the concept on a very large scale.

In order to increase production of the central factory to the designed capacity of 250,000 t of beet, there were plans for 8 more râperies.

The fourth building had below: 45 tanks of 1,000 hectoliters each for the second and third products, and above: the packing and storage room for sugar of 1,800 m2.

Running along one side, on platforms, were: the tanks for the first and second carbonatation; the multiple effect evaporators; and the vacuum pans.

For this, the raw juice of the sugar beet was extracted in 16 râperies, one of which was located at the factory itself.

This allowed the creation of the network of râperies and guaranteed the steady supply of beet at a competing price.

For transport it had a canal with quays and its own railway connection to Cambrai station.

Water for the machinery and central râperie was provided by the canal and several pits.

[8] The râperie at the central factory also served for beet delivered by boat or rail.

These beet could either be unloaded to the reception area, or to rail carriages which brought them to storage.

[7] The central factory itself consisted of a great machinery hall of 100 by 18 m. It was surrounded by smaller buildings like the scum works, the generators, repair shops etc.

This also applied to the steam engines, which were in two parallel buildings separated by two railway tracks used to supply coal.

The director of the factory, the chief engineer, two sous-chefs and 11 laborers were investigating and working on the malfunction in a place below the evaporator when the boiler exploded.

[13] The war also led to a strong modernization and concentration of the sugar industry in northern France, with many small factories not reopening.

[13] In April 1972 Béghin-Say made a tender offer to the shareholders of Sucrerie centrale de Cambrai.