Western Sugar Cooperative

The Western Sugar Cooperative is a grower owned American agricultural cooperative originating from the Great Western Sugar Company in 1901.

Western Sugar Cooperative

Type	Agricultural marketing cooperative
Founded	1901
Headquarters	Denver, Colorado , United States
Area served	Colorado
Products	sugar
Website	www.westernsugar.com

History

The Great Western Sugar Company was incorporated in February 1901 by Charles Boettcher and others including John F. Campion, after having difficulty making their Colorado Sugar Manufacturing Company factory in Grand Junction, Colorado a success and selling it to locals. Colorado Sugar had an agreement to build a plant in Loveland, Colorado in 1899, with the Utah Sugar Company eyeing expansion into Colorado, and Colorado Sugar lacking resources to follow through quickly, they gave their Loveland agreement to Great Western. Great Western brought in other high-level investors (Eben Smith, David Moffat, William Jackson Palmer), created the Great Western Construction Company, then had the subsidiary build their first sugar beet processing plant, opening on November 21, 1901. The first year was a failure, both for beet quality and problems at the factory, so they hired Mark Austin from Utah Sugar to improve their situation.[1]

Great Western created the Great Western Railway subsidiary in 1902, which allowed an expansion of the territory a beet sugar factory could collect from. Great Western also created the Loveland Construction Company, which built the railway, primarily with Japanese workers.[1][2]

Rounds of price wars with the Sugar Trust in 1900-1902 eliminated Great Western's Colorado competitors, and the Trust acquired control of Great Western by 1904. The Trust set prices, trained factories and farmers, assigned plants and farmers to regional "beet districts" to prevent plants from competing against each other with the farmers, but left the factories independent to conduct other business. In 1905 Great Western was reestablished as a New Jersey corporation and acquired four Colorado factories.[1]

Colorado was the largest producer of beet sugar by 1906. By 1926 there were a total of 17 factories, including 13 from Great Western.[2][3]

Starting at its creation in 1901 Great Western brought in Russian Germans families (who had experience with sugar beet farming), single Japanese men (until immigration restrictions eliminated them in 1907), Mexican workers to help with the labors of sugar beet farming. The Russian Germans were preferred for their experience at producing high beet yields. Their upward mobility, not afforded to Hispanic workers, meant they contributed less in the labor pool. By the 1910s and the 1920s the Hispanic/Mexican farmworkers had taken over the need for beet labor.[4][1]

Great Western cut contract prices to farmers in the 1910s and 1920s, leading to the "Loveland Resolutions" accord by farmers associations against the company. Colorado passed the Cooperative Marketing Law in 1923, allowing co-ops as legal entities. This allowed farmers to present a united front and raise the contract prices of beets. This, fewer farmers planting beets, and curly top disease lowering yields caused Great Western to create a profitsharing contract, splitting the profits from selling the sugar 50-50. This became standard for the industry.[1]

The Great Depression in 1929 substantially reduced both demand and prices, nearly ruining the industry. Tariffs were passed, which did not help. The Sugar Trust lobbed and got included in the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) through the Jones–Costigan amendment. This reduced imports and set base prices on sugar. The dust bowl continued the interwar period traumas to the industry. Some farmers were protected from drought per the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, created through farm and industry lobbying.[1]

World War II brought an end to the Depression, drought, and brought back consumer demand. The lack of labor incentivized change: more reliable seeds were developed, which meant labor-intensive thinning and blocking was unnecessary and mechanical harvesting was perfected becoming rapidly adopted. However, AAA kept a cap on prices and profitability, hindering recovery. A long drought also hit in the 1950s.[1]

A byproduct of the process was molasses that could not be crystallized into sugar. This was used as food, sold as livestock feed, or distilled into alcohol. Beginning in the 1950s, it was put through the Steffen process to produce monosodium glutamate (MSG). Great Western had one MSG plant in Fort Collins.[1][5]

In 1968 the company merged with Denver's Colorado Milling and Elevator Company and became Great Western United Corporation with William M. White Jr. as the president. Robert R. Owen joined as the Great Western Sugar president in 1968, coming from Ford. The president of the company was Robert Owen until 1971. The Emerald Christmas Tree Company was added around 1968, as well as the Colorado City, Colorado and California City, California land developments, both part of California City Development Company; they became Great Western Cities. For various reasons, all of these companies struggled in 1969-1970.[6][7][8]

By the 1970s, the New York Times described Great Western as a "house of cards". Investigations of price fixing by six sugar producers including Great Western closed in 1974 with indictments; the Justice Department and Council on Wage and Price Stability also investigated why prices had spiked 300-400% in 1974.[9][10][11]

Hunt International Resources acquired Great Western in late 1974 as a hostile takeover as the price fixing indictments came in, attempting to corner the sugar market. They then removed the board of directors and executive leadership.[9][12][13]

Sugar prices remained high in 1975 even after the price fixing indictments were issued, even though the United States Sugar Act of 1937, which removed import quotas, also expired in 1974.[11] Prices then began to deflate rapidly. By 1977 the industry was asking for government subsidies after the price deflation.[14][9]

In 1977 Hunt, through Great Western, acquired the Sunshine Mine, an Idaho silver mine.[15][16]

The Great Western Producers Co-Operative, a farmers co-op, attempted to buy the sugar divison in 1971-1972 and again in 1974 for $43.5 million. The 1974 effort failed after an increase in sugar prices led to record profits, which made the co-op's bid look undervalued. Great Western United sued in 1975 to void the contract and the co-op counterclaimed that United had failed to represent them accurately in proxy statements. The co-op lost the case in 1975, as well as on appeal in 1978 and on second appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1980.[17][18]

In 1984 three divisions were put for sale: Godchaux-Henderson Sugar Company (Reserve, Louisiana), the Northern Ohio Sugar Company and the Great Western Railway Company.[19] Holly Sugar expressed interest in buying Northern Ohio and Godchaux-Henderson but talks fell through in June 1984.[20] By 1985 Great Western was described as "one of the many trouble spots" in the Hunt group, and Great Western filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1985. Savannah Foods & Industries purchased the Fremont, Ohio plant and Findlay, Ohio storage facility.[21][22][23]

In 1985, Tate & Lyle created the Western Sugar Company and purchased six of the factories: Greeley, Fort Morgan, Scottsbluff, Baird, and Billings. They apparently also bought Loveland closed it down in 1985. By 2002 Western Sugar was still operating the Greeley and Fort Morgan factories.[1][21][23]

In 2002, more than 1000 sugar beet growers purchased the company, creating the Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Co-operative. Later that year it merged into the Western Sugar Cooperative.[24]

The organization was headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It has five factories, located at Fort Morgan, Colorado, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Torrington and Lovell, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana.

In May 2015 the co-op announced it would be ending production at the Torrington site and would only use that site for storage. As such it plans to reduce the workforce at its Torrington site from 76 staffers to just 6. The changes were set to take effect late 2016, however as of early 2018 it is still fully operable.

Sugar beet factories

Sugar beets rapidly lost sugar content after harvesting, meaning many of the industrial processing factories were required. Listed in approximate acquisition order:[1][25]

• Loveland, Colorado built in 1901, 1,950 short tons (1,770 t) capacity in 1919. Described above. Permanently closed in 1985.[26][2][1][25]
• Greeley, Colorado, built by the Greeley Sugar Company in 1902 and sold to the Sugar Trust in the same year. 1,050 short tons (950 t) capacity in 1919. Became part of Great Western in 1905.[26][3][1][25]
• Longmont, Colorado, built in 1903, became part of Great Western in 1905. 2,350 short tons (2,130 t) capacity in 1919. Was also home to a Great Western experimental station and research farms.[1][25]
• Fort Collins, Colorado, built in 1903 against the Poudre River for the Fort Collins Sugar Manufacturing Company. Had a Steffen house (to recover sugar from molasses, later to extract MSG). Became part of Great Western in 1905. 2,150 short tons (1,950 t) capacity in 1919. Closed in 1960. 40.59391°N 105.06197°W / 40.59391; -105.06197[27][2][1][25]
• Eaton, Colorado, built in 1902, became part of Great Western in 1905. 1,200 short tons (1,100 t) capacity in 1919. Closed in the 1970s.[1][25]
• Windsor, Colorado, built 1903, became part of Great Western in 1905. 1,150 short tons (1,040 t) capacity in 1919. Closed in 1968.[1][25]
• Sterling, Colorado, built by locals in 1905 and acquired by Great Western in 1906. 1,050 short tons (950 t) capacity in 1919. Closed in 1985.[2][26][1][25]
• Fort Morgan, Colorado, built by Great Western in 1906. 1,200 short tons (1,100 t) capacity in 1919.[2][26][1][25]
• Brush, Colorado, built by Great Western in 1906. 1,100 short tons (1,000 t) capacity in 1919.[2][1][25]
• Billings, Montana, acquired by Great Western in 1906, operated under its own name to escape antitrust scrutiny. 2,000 short tons (1,800 t) capacity in 1919.[2][26][1][25]
• Scottsbluff, Nebraska, built by Great Western in 1910 by moving an 1899 Standard Beet Company (Heyward G. Leavitt) factory from Ames, Nebraska, which had closed in 1906. 2,000 short tons (1,800 t) capacity in 1919.[28][2][26][25]
• Gering, Nebraska, built by Great Western in 1916. 1,100 short tons (1,000 t) capacity, raised to 1,200 short tons (1,100 t) by 1935.[28][1][26][25]
• Lovell, Wyoming, built by Great Western in 1916, 600 short tons (540 t) capacity in 1919.[28][1][26][29][26][25]
• Bayard, Nebraska, built by Great Western in 1917. 1,000 short tons (910 t) capacity in 1919.[1][30][26][25]
• Brighton, Colorado, built by Great Western in 1917. 1,000 short tons (910 t) capacity in 1919. Closed 1978.[1][2][25]
• Mitchell, Nebraska, built by Great Western in 1920. Had been requested by farmers since the Scottsbluff plant was built. 1,300 short tons (1,200 t) capacity in 1919.[1][26]
• Ovid, Colorado, built by Great Western in 1924, closed 1985.[2][30][26][1]
• Johnstown, Colorado, along Big Thompson River. Originally started as a sugar factory in 1920, construction completed as a molasses refinery in 1926. Molasses was shipped here and recovered to confectioners sugar.[28][2][1]
• Fort Lupton, Colorado, built by Industrial Sugar in 1919, acquired by Great Western in 1926. Closed 1948.[1]
• Lyman, Nebraska, built by Great Western in 1926. 1,300 short tons (1,200 t) capacity in 1935.[28][1]
• Goodland, Kansas, built by Great Western in the 1970s.[26][1]
• Fremont, Ohio[30][31]
• Missoula, Montana built in 1916, 1,000 short tons (910 t) capacity in 1919. Operated for one year due to disputes; Amalgamated built a replacement plant on its site in 1928.[32]
• Findlay, Ohio (probable)[31]
• Montreal, Canada (probable)[2]

Other operations

• Horse Creek, Wyoming, lime quarry, 1908.[1]
• Ingleside, Colorado, lime quarry, 1908.[1]
• Fort Collins, Colorado, experimental station and research farms.[1]

Great Western Food

The White Lily flour mill, opened in 1884[33] by J. Allen Smith in Knoxville, Tennessee. White Lily and J. Allen Smith became part of Great Western Foods (GWF), a division of Great Western United, in 1968. White Lily had at some point been owned by J. Allen Smith & Co. GWF was based in Knoxville, and by 1972 had 6% of the southeast's regional flour milling capacity. It also produced its Three Rivers brand cornmeal.[34]

Federal Company and its subsidiary Dixie Portland Flour Mills purchased GWF in 1972. As Federal had 11% of the flour market, a Justice Department assistant district attorney in the antitrust division, Thomas E. Kauper, filed suit to require the divestment of GWF. The Justice Department lost that suit, as there was no basis for a regional market to the exclusion of others. Further, Federal's "home flour" market was fragmented between about 50 private-label and non-premium brands, and was also in a steep sales decline from 1965 to 1974. Federal/Dixie-Portland then renovated the plant in 1975. White Lily was the fourth most popular brand of flour in the US in 1988.[34]

The White Lily mill, after GWF and then Dixie Portland/Federal, went through many ownership changes from 1989 on: Holly Farms, Tyson Foods, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Windmill Holdings, then C.H. Guenther & Son Inc.'s Pioneer Flour Mills in 1995. Guenther used the site as a copacker for The J.M. Smucker Company; Smucker bought the White Lily brand in 2006, and Guenther closed the mill in 2008.[35][34] The mill site was purchased by developer David Dewhirst in 2011, planning to turn part of it into lofts.[36][33]

Shakey's Pizza

Main article: Shakey's Pizza

Colorado Milling had purchased half of Shakey's Pizza in 1967, buying out Sherwood "Shakey" Johnson's half of the company, and Great Western bought out Ed Plummer's remaining half of the company. Hunt International Resources bought Great Western, including Shakey's, in 1974. Investors Gary Brown and Jay Halverson purchased it in 1984, then sold it to Singapore-based Inno-Pacific Holdings in 1988 (foreign locations) and 189 (domestic).[37][38][6]

See also

• Fanjul brothers

References

1. Eric Twitty (August 2003). "Silver Wedge: The Sugar Beet Industry in Fort Collins" (PDF). SWCA Environmental Consultants. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
2. Carl McWilliams (2020). "GERMANS FROM RUSSIA and the GREAT WESTERN SUGAR COMPANY". cityofloveland.org. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
3. Arrington, Leonard J. (1966). Beet sugar in the West; a history of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1891-1966. University of Washington Press. p. 57. OCLC 234150.
4. La gente : hispano history and life in Colorado. C. de Baca, Vincent., Colorado Historical Society. Denver, Colo.: Colorado Historical Society. 1998. ISBN 9780870815386. OCLC 40678337.CS1 maint: others (link)
5. Sarah E. Tracy (26 July 2019). "Tasty waste: industrial fermentation and the creative destruction of MSG". Food, Culture & Society. doi:10.1080/15528014.2019.1638117.
6. "Leisure eNewsletter - October 2004: Shakey's Celebrates 50 Years of Eatertainment". White Hutchinson. October 2004. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
7. "Western Sugar Company 1969 annual meeting pages" (PDF). mountainscholar.org. 1969. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
8. Robert A. Wright (24 November 1974). "The Hunts, Sugar and Great Western United; Earnings Soar and Troubles Multiply". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
9. Reginald Stuart (21 December 1974). "People and Business". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
10. Isadore Barmash (15 November 1974). "Soaring Sugar Cost Arouses Consumers And U.S. Inquiries". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020. Robert T. Quittmeyer
11. H. J. Maidenberg (3 February 1975). "RETAIL SUGAR COST WILL REMAIN HIGH". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
12. "Great Western Is Appealing Denial of Motion on Hunt Bid". nytimes.com. 3 December 1974. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
13. "Hunts Are Seeking Sugar‐Beet Shares". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
14. William Nye Curry (25 February 1977). "U.S. Action Is Urged To Lift Sugar Price". Washington Post. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
15. "Great Western Appears Near Sunshine Takeover". nytimes.com. 5 October 1977. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
16. "Hunt Brothers Named To Board of Sunshine". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
17. "Great Wes. Prod. Co-Op. v. Great Wes. United Corp., 613 P.2d 873". CourtListener. 30 June 1980. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
18. "Great Western United Co. v. Great Western Producers Co., 588 P.2d 380". CourtListener. 26 December 1978. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
19. "Great Western". nytimes.com. 27 December 1984. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
20. "Holly Sugar". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
21. "Six Sugar Plants to Be Sold". nytimes.com. 22 March 1985. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
22. "HUNT FAMILY'S FINANCIAL TROUBLES GROW WORSE". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
23. "Sugar Plants Sold". nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
24. "Completion of Western Sugar sale by Tate & Lyle". Tate & Lyle. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
25. Franklin Stewart Harris (1919). The Sugar-Beet in America. New York: The MacMillan Company.
26. "30 Years Ago Excerpts from the January 1985 Issue of The Sugarbeet Grower". The Sugarbeet Grower Magazine. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
27. Adam Thomas (August 2003). "Work renders life sweet: Germans from Russia in Fort Collins, 1900-2000" (PDF). SWCA Environmental Consultants; Advance Planning Department, City of Fort Collins, Colorado. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
28. Esther S. Anderson (April 1935). "The Sugar Beet Industry of Nebraska". University of Nebraska. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
29. "Connecting the Generations". The Sugarbeet Grower Magazine. 2 February 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
30. "Excerpts from the April/May 1982 Issue of The Sugarbeet Grower". The Sugarbeet Grower Magazine. 5 May 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
31. "#TBT: April 1990 – Minn-Dak Promotes Knudsen, Richter to Vice Presidencies". The Sugarbeet Grower Magazine. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
32. "Beet this: Making sugar was big deal for Missoula, MT". The Sugarbeet Grower Magazine. 19 May 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
33. Josh Flory (27 August 2011). "Dewhirst group buys White Lily building". archive.knoxnews.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
34. Ed Marcum (18 May 2008). "Put through the mill". archive.knoxnews.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
35. Michael Silence (3 March 2008). "White Lily closing downtown mill". archive.knoxnews.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
36. Hugh G. Willett (31 October 2011). "Development of White Lily plant moving ahead". archive.knoxnews.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
37. Sarah Hui (31 July 2019). "Why did Shakey's, once Dallas' most popular pizza joint, close? Curious Texas investigates". Dallas News. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
38. "Texas Singapore conglomerate buys Shakey's Pizza chain". UPI. 8 February 1989. Retrieved 8 August 2020.

External links

• Western Sugar Cooperative website
• Guide to the Records of the Great Western Sugar Company
• Great Western graphics and packaging
• The Great Western Sugar Refinery in Ovid, Colorado – Gone - pictures of before and after the factory was demolished