California and Hawaiian Sugar Company (C&H Sugar) is an American sugar processing and distribution company. Originally organized as a co-operative in 1921, it encountered a severe decline in sugar markets and passed through a series of owners in the last half of the 20th Century. In 2017, its Crockett, California refinery processed its last shipment of Hawaiian sugar but continues to produce Pure Cane Sugar sourced from other locations. The C&H Sugar Crockett Refinery employs more than 450 people and produces 14% of the nation's cane sugar.
Video California and Hawaiian Sugar Company
History
The California and Hawaiian Sugar Company was founded in 1906 and operated from 1921 to 1993 as an agricultural cooperative marketing association owned by the member sugar companies in Hawaii. Its headquarters are in Crockett under the Carquinez Bridge in unincorporated Contra Costa County, California.
In 1993, the member companies sold their interests in C&H to Alexander & Baldwin in Honolulu, and the refining company's status changed from a cooperative to a corporation. Alexander & Baldwin subsequently sold its majority share to an investment group, Citicorp Venture Capital (CVC) in 1998, retaining a 40% common stock interest in the recapitalized company. The Hawaiian sugar farmers sold their holdings in 1993 to Hawaii-based Alexander & Baldwin, which converted C&H from a co-op into a corporation. In 1998, A & B sold a controlling interest to Citicorp Venture Capital (CVC). American Sugar Refining bought C&H in 2006, merging it with its other sugar operations. C&H revenues and profits continued to decline into the 21st Century.
Maps California and Hawaiian Sugar Company
Products and market
The C&H brand is one of the leading sugar brands in the company's markets (where it is not the de facto leader), largely due to advertisements stressing their exclusive use of cane sugar, believed by some to be superior to sugar from the sugar beet. C&H sells a variety of cane sugar products, including white granulated, brown, baker's (superfine), powdered and organic.
C&H's primary market is west of the Mississippi River in the United States, although some sugar is sold in various east coast stores. A number of high-profile restaurants, bakeries and hotels have C&H sugar shipped directly to them where it is not available through local distribution channels. More than 70 types, grades, and package sizes are sold within the two major groupings of grocery and industrial products. About 700,000 short tons (640,000 metric tons) of sugar per year are processed. The refinery at Crockett, California, refines, packages, and markets all of the output from Hawaii's sugar factories, such as the remaining factory of Alexander & Baldwin, the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company on Maui.
In 2016, citing a loss of profitability, the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company harvested its last Hawaiian sugar cane crop, and will cease refining operations there. Lands still owned by the company will be converted to other crops and uses, such as sorghum and biofuel crops.
See also
Crockett, California
Notes
References
External links
- C&H Pure Cane Sugar
- Keri Hayes (May 15, 2002). "A Small Town's Sweet Sorrow: The tight bond between Crockett and C&H sugar has been polluted along with local waterways". East Bay Express. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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