Sugar Mill

History of the Sugar Mill

In 1518, John of Pernstein gave permission to Ondřej Šilhan to construct a mill at the end of the dam of the Large Prosenice Pond. The mill had two flour wheels and one inlet wheel and it was powered by the pond water or by water flowing in the nearby millrace. This mill, operating for more than 360 years, was replaced by the joint-stock sugar mill in 1881.

Sugar mill office building with a locomotive - 1920

Its construction in 1881 was of far-reaching importance for the village and, primarily, for farmers from villages around Prosenice. Until then, farmers supplied sugar-beet, cultivated around Prosenice since the late 1860s, to German sugar mills in Přerov and Lipník. Said sugar mills, having a sufficient beet supply from their large estates, deliberately paid little attention to in the small farmers' crops, refused to provide supply advantages to them and bullied them in various ways, especially during the delivery of beet. This led to the decision by farm leaders in the Lipník area in 1880 to collectively purchase Šebek's steam mill in Malé Prosenice and convert it into a sugar mill. They established an interim committee for stock subscription, drawing up the company's articles of association and managing preparatory work for factory construction. Still in 1880, they established a joint-stock company, which built the sugar mill in the following year.

The first campaign, which began as late as 3 November 1881 due to delays in construction and lasted until 5 February 1882 because of a hard frost and difficult beet processing, ended with a substantial financial loss, putting the sugar mill in a difficult financial situation in the subsequent years. However, initial setbacks did not undermine the shareholders' confidence in the success of the new factory. And since the following campaigns were successful, it was possible to improve the factory's engineering facilities and increase its production capacity, leading to better sugar yields and a reduction in production costs. The development of the sugar mill also led to the extension of the sugar beet cultivation. The sugar mill expanded its activities by purchasing a farmstead in Sobíšky in 1906, but sold it soon afterwards, and during the division of the former Přerov domain, the mill bought two farmsteads in Tučín and Želatovice in 1917. With stiff competition from both neighbouring sugar mills, it was very difficult for the company to succeed, but thanks to the resilience and devotion of the committee members and good management, all hardships were overcome. And in the course of time, the sugar mills in Přerov and Lipník ended their activities.

Sugar mill clerk office - 1931

The foundation of the sugar mill also accelerated the establishment of a post office in Malé Prosenice in 1890, and the sugar mill also participated in the foundation of the local co-operative dairy works in 1900 and brick works in 1910. After extensive redevelopment of 1970-80, the Prosenice Sugar Mill ranked among the top modern sugar producers in the Socialist period of this state.

In the beginning, the sugar mill also had to overcome logistic problems, as all materials and goods had to be conveyed by horse carriages from the nearest railway stations in Přerov and Lipník. Therefore, the sugar mill management started negotiations with the central office of the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway on the establishment of a railway station on the territory of Malé Prosenice. The negotiations resulted in the establishment of a passenger stop in 1881, followed by a freight station in 1885 and, finally, the construction of a railway station in 1897. The station became a public station in 1917, while factory siding to the sugar mill was constructed in 1910. The sugar mill also constructed the first bridge crossing the Bečva River near Grymov and contributed largely to the construction of roadways in the surroundings.

Present

Prosenice Sugar Mill in 2012

Since 1992, the sugar industry in the Czech Republic has been marked by the presence of international investment groups trying to monopolise the Czech sugar industry with their financial policy. Of the original 58 sugar mills working in the Czech Republic in 1990, a mere 7 were still operating in 2008. The aforementioned trends also impacted the Prosenice Sugar Mill and led to the termination of sugar production in Prosenice in 1996.

After the sugar mill had been out of operation for four years, the Prosenice Sugar Mill premises were bought by Hanácká potravinářská společnost s. r. o. Following extensive investment, production modernisation, and in cooperation with central Moravian farmers, the first campaign began in September 2000, launching the new history of sugar production in Prosenice.