The Sugar Land Refinery in Sugar Land, TX

Imperial Sugar is a major

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

sugar producer The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, most sugar is extracted from sugar cane (~80% predominantly in the tropics) and sugar beet (~ 20%, mostly in temperate climate ...

and marketer based in

Sugar Land, Texas Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around ...

, with

sugar refinery A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or beets into white refined sugar. Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it more colour (and impurities) than the w ...

operations in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

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, and

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. The company was established in 1843 and has undergone ownership changes multiple times. The current name, Imperial Sugar Company, was established after a change in ownership in 1907. The company went through major expansion through acquisitions beginning in 1988, but filed for bankruptcy in 2001, emerging in the same year and embarking on a downsizing strategy. In May of 2012, the company was purchased by

Louis Dreyfus Group Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC), also called the Louis-Dreyfus Group, is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture, food processing, international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, dev ...

of the Netherlands.

History

The company has been headquartered in Sugar Land since its inception. The city itself is named for the company and the company's crown logo is featured in the city's seal. The company was founded in 1843 by

Samuel May Williams Samuel May Williams (October 4, 1795 – September 13, 1858) was an American businessman, politician, and close associate of Stephen F. Austin, who was an Anglo-American colonizer of Mexican Texas. As a teenager, Williams started working in ...

and passed through a series of owners until its purchase in 1907 by the I. H. Kempner family of

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. The company was later renamed the Imperial Sugar Company, in an effort to emphasize quality. Up until 1988 the company had only one plant, at its original location in Texas, when they purchased the Holly Sugar Corporation, a

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...

processor headquartered in

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. At that time Imperial Sugar Company became Imperial Holly Corporation and began publicly trading on

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. Since the initial acquisition the company has made several more acquisitions that effectively doubled the corporation's size each time. The company's name returned to Imperial Sugar Company in 1999. On , the company filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy protection, attributing its problems to lower sales for refined sugar as well as higher energy costs. Then on August 29, 2001, the company emerged from Chapter 11 and has since turned its focus inward as it downsizes its operations. In 2003, Imperial won the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for innovative use of web technology to help turn around the business. The company no longer refines sugar at its original plant in Sugar Land (the facility was closed in 2003) but its corporate headquarters are still located in its founding city. On , two buildings of the Sugar Land factory were demolished by controlled explosion to facilitate the development of the property for residences, business properties and park land.Houston Chronicle
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Plans for development. In 2010, Imperial exchanged its aging nineteenth-century

Gramercy, Louisiana Gramercy is a town in the U.S. state of Louisiana, in St. James Parish. It is part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area . The population was 3,613 at the time of the 2010 U.S. census and 3,188 according to the 2020 population estimates program ...

refinery to Louisiana Sugar Refiners, LLC (LSR) for a one-third interest in the new company. LSR commenced operations on . Imperial continues to operate a small-bag processing facility at Gramercy.

2008 explosion

On , an explosion at a

Port Wentworth, Georgia Port Wentworth is a city in Chatham County, Georgia, United States. The 2020 population was 10,878, more than double the population of 5,359 at the 2010 census. Port Wentworth is part of the Savannah metropolitan area. History The Georgia General ...

, sugar refinery killed 14 people and injured more than 40. It was likely caused by an overheated bearing on a conveyor beneath the sugar silos, which ignited sugar dust, then spread in a chain reaction of sugar dust explosions in the finished-sugar packaging area of the plant.

OSHA OSHA or Osha may refer to: Work * Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency of the United States that regulates workplace safety and health * Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) of 1970, a federal law in the Un ...

had been criticized in a 2006 US Chemical Safety Board report for lack of preparation for such explosions and a safety program that "inadequately addresses dust explosion hazards". As of August 26, 2008, the death toll had risen to 14, with one still in critical condition. The plant, originally built as the Dixie Crystals sugar refinery in 1916–1917, had been acquired by Imperial Sugar in 1997. At the time of its purchase, the Port Wentworth refinery was the second-largest sugar refining operation in the U.S.

Acquisition by Louis Dreyfus Group

On 1 May 2012, Louis Dreyfus Commodities LLC announced that one of its subsidiaries would acquire all outstanding Imperial Sugar stock for $6.35 per share and assume $125 million in Imperial Sugar debt. The price per share represented a 57% premium over Imperial Sugar's closing price on 30 April. A spokesman for Dreyfus group said the acquisition was part of the company's efforts to expand into refining and distribution of sugar.

Antitrust Lawsuit

In November 2021, US Sugar and Imperial Sugar were sued by the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

for a proposed

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

of the two companies. The Justice department claimed in a statement that the deal was anticompetitive and would “leave an overwhelming majority of refined sugar sales across the Southeast in the hands of only two producers”. Imperial Sugar and US Sugar stated that they disagreed with the

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

lawsuit and that they fully intended to litigate.

Gallery

File:FortBend 379.JPG, Imperial Sugar offices in Sugar Land File:ImperialSugarTechCenter.JPG, Imperial Sugar Technology Center in Sugar Land

References

External links

Imperial Sugar Company corporate website

Imperial Sugar brand consumer website

Dixie Crystals brand consumer website
* {{Handbook of Texas, id=diicy, name=Imperial Sugar Company
Imperial Sugar Commercial, no.2, from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Sugar companies of the United States Companies based in Sugar Land, Texas Food and drink companies established in 1843 1843 establishments in the Republic of Texas Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 2012 mergers and acquisitions