The History of Imperial Sugar Company

The rich history of this company began in 1843, when Samuel May Williams' sugar crop on the Oakland Plantation (what is now Sugar Land, TX, the current headquarters of the Imperial Sugar Company) was large enough to justify the installation of a commercial raw sugar grinding mill (establishing the site of future Imperial Sugar Company). By 1855, in the surrounding areas of the Oakland Plantation, sugar cane had replaced cotton as the dominant crop. In the 1850's, Texas was producing more than enough sugar to satisfy its needs and the surplus was being shipped to Eastern and Southern cities. Sugar growing and milling was becoming big business and, by 1883, a 600-ton raw sugar mill was built and named the "Imperial Mill". In 1896, construction began of a cane sugar refinery at Sugar Land to manufacture 100,000 pounds per day of white refined sugar. The cost of construction required an investment of $1,500,000, a huge sum of money for that time.

In 1905, the primary plantations of Sugar Land, the Ellis and Cunningham Plantations, were purchased by the Kempner family, an affluent and well-respected family who had established themselves in the area. After the purchase, the Kempner family transferred the title of those properties to the Imperial Sugar Company, a private company they had formed. Soon thereafter, in April of 1907, the Imperial Sugar Company was incorporated. The name "Imperial" arose from the fact that the Ellis raw sugar mill had been known as the "Imperial Mill" for many years. In 1919, when Sugarland Industries was formed as a trust estate, the Imperial Sugar Company was dissolved as a corporation and became a separate department of Sugarland Industries. However, in September of 1924, when the company was in need of a large capital expenditure, it was again organized as a separate 5 million dollar corporation.

In 1926, as the need for pre-packaged sugar (versus scooping the amount you needed from a barrel) became clear, sugar was sold in pre-packed cotton sugar bags under the Imperial Sugar brand name for the first time. In 1928, as off-shore raw sugar became readily available, Imperial Sugar focused its attention on foreign raw sugar sources, and therefore processed its last locally grown sugar cane. In that same time period, the remaining raw sugar mills in the area, including the one at Sugar Land, were closed and dismantled.

During the World War II period, Imperial Sugar was working tirelessly to provide America and its troops with sugar. Because of the war, however, the wear and tear on the refinery made maintenance unavoidable. In 1948, after having spent $4 million on plant improvements, Imperial Sugar was putting out nearly 2,500,000 pounds of sugar per day.

In 1843, Samuel May Williams' sugar crop on Oakland Plantation (the present-day site of Imperial Sugar Company) and the crops of other nearby farms were large enough to justify building a commercial raw sugar mill. Cane stalks were cut and loaded into horse-drawn wagons and carted to the mill.

In the last two decades, however, Imperial Sugar has gone through considerable change. In 1988 the Imperial Sugar Company, which had remained a privately owned cane sugar refinery with one facility located in Sugar Land, Texas, would acquire the publicly held Holly Sugar Corporation, a beet processor headquartered in Colorado Springs. With that acquisition, Imperial Sugar more than doubled in size and became a marketer of both cane and beet sugar. In 1996, Imperial acquired Spreckels Sugar Company of California, a West Coast beet sugar company.

In 1997 Savannah Foods & Industries, Inc., headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, the second largest sugar refiner in the industry, was acquired. Therefore, as was the case with the Holly acquisition, the Company again more than doubled in size, becoming the largest processor and refiner of sugar in the United States.

In 2002, Imperial sold Michigan Sugar Company and its Worland, Wyoming beet facility to grower cooperatives. In October 2002, Imperial sold its beet facilities in the Rocky Mountains to American Crystal Sugar Company. The Sugar Land refinery was closed in May 2003 and production moved to other facilities in the United States, however the corporate offices remain in Sugar Land, Texas. On September 2005, Imperial sold its California facilities to Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative. The sale included the use of the Spreckels brand. With access to production and distribution facilities throughout the United States, Imperial now markets two of the country's leading consumer sugar brands: Imperial® and Dixie Crystals®.