Western Sugar Cooperative and American Crystal Sugar Company announced today they have finalized an agreement for Western to operate the Torrington, WY, sugarbeet factory formerly owned by Imperial Sugar.
Under terms of the agreement, Crystal purchased the facility from Imperial and Western will operate the factory under a long-term agreement.
Inder Mathur, Western Sugar CEO, says the acquisition strengthens the grower-owned cooperative.
“Torrington will increase the value of our members’ investment in Western Sugar,” Mathur said. “In addition to an excellent quality grower group, the agreement brings a high-capacity, first-class facility on-line for Western Sugar,” he said.
Western believes bringing Torrington into the Cooperative will improve production efficiencies. Specifically, Torrington gives Western Sugar additional sugarbeet acreage, increased storage and additional packaging capability. The increased packaging capability makes it possible for Western to produce more high-quality products for its customers.
“We are very impressed with the factory and the experienced employee group at the Torrington facility,” Mathur said. Torrington’s factory, built in 1923, can slice 5,400 tons a day. It will become the second largest slicing facility for Western, behind Fort Morgan’s 5,800-ton-a-day slicing capacity.
In conjunction with the acquisition of production capacity at Torrington, Western will idle its operation at Bayard, NE. The company is working with the 38 fulltime Bayard employees to transition them to other Western facilities. The Bayard factory, built in 1917, was slicing 3,000 tons a day.