The new Zeitz factory was built in 1993 to replace the original operation, which dated back to 1858. It is one of the major new sugar mills built in Germany's new states following the reunification. During the campaign, 12,400 tonnes of beets are processed per day. Zeitz is thus one of Südzucker's leading factories.

The factory operates twenty-four hours per day during the beet campaign between mid-September and end of December and produces about 1,000 tonnes of sugar daily. More than half of the intermediary beet syrup is stored in tanks and, together with syrup from the sister factory in Brottewitz, is converted to sugar from February to July. As a result, a large part of the plant is fully loaded almost year-round. The facility produces about 200,000 tonnes of sugar annually, enough to satisfy the average annual requirements of about six million consumers. The total storage capacity of the beet syrup tanks for the intermediary products is about 188,000 cubic meters. These are almost completely full by the end of the beet campaign.

About 150 people are employed at the plant during the campaign and 160 the rest of the time. Added to that are thirty-three apprentices who learn various technical and commercial trades at the facility. Most are specialists qualified to handle the sugar extraction equipment, as well as repair and maintain the sophisticated technical systems.

800 farmers plant sugar beets on an area of about 20.000 hectares for the factory. The fields are located in the state of Thüringen, the southern part of Sachsen-Anhalt and West Saxony. The delivered sugar beets are inspected for quality and sugar content. Südzucker and the farmers have worked as a team to successfully improve the economical and business aspects of beet cultivation, and their efforts are widely recognized. The farmers cultivate and are paid for the supplied beets under contract to Südzucker. The agreements are largely defined by the EU sugar market regulations.