[1] Great Western brought in other high-level investors (Eben Smith, David Moffat, William Jackson Palmer, James Joseph Brown), created the Great Western Construction Company, then had the subsidiary build their first sugar beet processing plant, opening on November 21, 1901.
[1][2] The first year was a failure, both for beet quality and problems at the factory, so they hired Mark Austin from Utah Sugar to improve their situation.
Great Western also created the Loveland Construction Company, which built the railway, primarily with Japanese workers.
This, fewer farmers planting beets, and curly top disease lowering yields caused Great Western to create a profit-sharing contract, splitting the profits from selling the sugar 50-50.
The lack of labor incentivized change: more reliable seeds were developed, which meant labor-intensive thinning and blocking was unnecessary and mechanical harvesting was perfected becoming rapidly adopted.
[1] During the war, Great Western sought employees from the Heart Mountain Japanese American internment camp.
An announcement on 2 April 1943 described "choice contracts" for Heart Mountain workers,[7] and a quarter-page Great Western ad in September 1943 discussed pricing, transportation, and said "Many farmers need help to harvest the sugar beet crop.
During the 1942-1945 seasons, Japanese American laborers brought in 20% of the sugar beet crop in the nation, despite deep hatred and racism.
Colorado Milling and Elevator was sold in 1967 or 1969 to Peavey Flour Co.[14][15][3][16] White Jr. was the fourth generation of his family to be involved with Great Western, and his father was a director at the time of the takeover.
Robert R. Owen joined that year as the Great Western Sugar president, coming from Ford Motors.
White was willing to sell Colorado Milling and Great Western Sugar, but was dismissed as CEO in 1971, much of it through Mendelsohn's efforts.
In 1975-1976 they had contracts for raw cane from Corporation Azucarera La Victoria of Panama and the Philippine Exchange Company.
[3] The Rocky Mountain Beet Growers Association formed in 1971, and was later known as the Great Western Producers Co-Operative.
The 1974 effort failed after an increase in sugar prices led to record profits, which made the co-op's bid look undervalued.
[36] Holly Sugar expressed interest in buying Northern Ohio and Godchaux-Henderson but talks fell through in June 1984.
[38][39][40] In 1985, Tate & Lyle created the Western Sugar Company and purchased six of the factories: Greeley, Fort Morgan, Scottsbluff, Bayard, and Billings.
It has five factories, located at Fort Morgan, Colorado, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Torrington and Lovell, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana.
[citation needed] By 1976, related subsidiaries of GWU included: Frank A. Kemp was named CEO in 1936 and remained so until 1967.
In early 1967 White attempted to buy and merge Gorton's Fish into Colorado/GWU, acquiring 30 percent, but failed and sold the shares six months later.
[21] White was named tongue-in-cheek in a Cervi's Journal article, nominating him as a 1971 Denver Man Of The Year for "his classic execution of the lateral arabesque (see The Peter Principle)".
By February 1972 White amended the statement, indicating he had sold just under half of his shares, but both Neal and Cowperthwaite would remain on the board.
Listed in approximate acquisition order:[1][53] The White Lily flour mill, opened in 1884[63] by J. Allen Smith in Knoxville, Tennessee.
As Federal had 11% of the flour market, a Justice Department assistant district attorney in the antitrust division, Thomas E. Kauper, filed suit to require the divestment of GWF.
[64] The White Lily mill, after GWF and then Dixie Portland/Federal, went through many ownership changes from 1989 on: Holly Farms, Tyson Foods, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Windmill Holdings, then C.H.
Investors Gary Brown and Jay Halverson purchased it in 1984, then sold it to Singapore-based Inno-Pacific Holdings in 1988 (foreign locations) and 1989 (domestic).
Through an agreement with California Department of Real Estate, Great Western Cities was effectively stopped from selling any of that 29,072 acres (11,765 ha) land base.
[21] In 1971, the National Indian Youth Council sued over the agreement, stating lease terms weren't adequately explained, and the water rights guarantees were illegal.
[3] Further, in March 1973, GWC settled with the California Department of Real Estate commissioner and the Attorney General, agreeing to an injunction.
The company strongly indicated they had been wanting to dispose of GWC since 1975, citing "adverse publicity concerning land developers" among other issues.
Coal and natural gas costs were a significant input, and risk, to the sugar business, especially following the 1973 oil crisis.