Coral Gables, Florida – Sucro Limited, an integrated sugar company focused primarily on serving the North American market, today announced plans to construct a new cane sugar refinery in the Greater Chicago Area to address the growing and underserved U.S. sugar market.
Once complete, the new refinery will have a similar scale to the company’s Lackawanna facility in Western New York. The new refinery will have significant value-added specialty sugar capabilities, including large grain crystals used in specialty foods and confectionery, an integrated brown sugar line, specialty liquid production and organic sugar refining capabilities. Start-up and initial production are expected in 2026.
The Chicago refinery will leverage Sucro’s existing property and sugar processing infrastructure at University Park, Illinois. The location represents the most inland cane sugar refinery in the U.S. with the capability to serve food processors and manufacturers in the Midwest with a more efficient supply of refined cane sugar and specialty sugars. Sucro expects to fund the equity portion of the facility’s construction costs using internally generated cashflows.
“The U.S. sugar market is chronically short of supply, and demand is growing. This is particularly true in specialty value-added segments like large-grain crystals. Our new Chicago refinery will add much-needed domestic refinery capacity to address the demand for refined sugar and reduce the market’s reliance on imports. The refinery’s primary focus will be higher value specialty sugar products which are in high demand from U.S. food processors and manufacturers,” said Jonathan Taylor, CEO and Founder of Sucro. “The Chicago refinery will represent Sucro’s third new facility in the past five years. Once the new Chicago refinery and the recently announced new refinery in Hamilton are complete, we believe Sucro will be responsible for adding more new capacity to the North American market than all other sugar refiners combined. Sucro is also unique in the industry as the only sugar refiner in North America to widely make available less processed, higher color refined granular sugar. This is the highest growth, most sought-after feature by our multinational customers looking for innovation and flexibility.”
“I’m happy that Sucro will continue to invest in University Park, proving that the Chicago South Suburbs remain one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family,” said Congresswoman Robin Kelly. “This investment will create new jobs and continue to grow an economy that works for everyone.”
“This project reinforces the successful partnership the Village has developed with Sucro over the past three years,” expressed Mayor Joseph E. Roudez, III. “We are excited for the positive economic impact this will have through improved infrastructure, job creation, and taxation, and we are grateful they chose to further invest in the second largest Industrial Corridor in the State of Illinois.”
Taylor continued, “The new refinery will be closely integrated with our existing production assets in Western New York and Southern Ontario, leveraging the strengths and operating capabilities of a highly efficient network of facilities. The integrated nature of our production assets is designed to supply competitively priced refined cane sugar for our blue-chip customer base of multi-national food manufacturers in the Midwest.”
The Chicago asset will have fully integrated logistics infrastructure, including inbound and outbound rail and on-road transport capabilities. The new refinery is expected to have 75 full-time equivalent manufacturing and administration positions once completed. Sucro is a minority-certified company and through its partner, Amerikoa, supports the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization that sponsors veteran homeless shelters, and hires local veterans.
For more information, visit sucro.us.