SAN FRANCISCO—There’s a decent chance the sugar on your table came from one of the Bay Area’s oldest companies. C&H Sugar, recognizable for its distinctive, bright neon sign, produces around 14 percent of the nation’s sugar cane.
Founded in 1906, C&H operated for most of its history as a cooperative association with a group of Hawaiian sugar companies as its members. In 1993, the cooperative was transformed into a corporation. Florida-based American Sugar Refining acquired C&H in 2005 as part of its slate of cane sugar brands.
The refinery in Crockett, a small town in Contra Costa County—which bears the moniker “Sugar Town” thanks to C&H—represents a quarter of ASR’s nationwide production, with 6 million pounds of raw sugar refined daily. The plant’s roughly 450 workers help to transport the raw product, refine the sugar, maintain the machinery and package the end product.
To keep up with demand, ASR has spent more than $5 million on capital improvements at the plant over the past five years, investing in equipment like high-tech packaging machines and pallet loaders.
Source: www.bizjournals.com