The current name, Imperial Sugar Company, was established after a change in ownership in 1907.

The company went through major expansion through acquisitions beginning in 1988, but filed for bankruptcy in 2001, emerging in the same year and embarking on a downsizing strategy.

The company was founded in 1843 by Samuel May Williams and passed through a series of owners until its purchase in 1907 by the I. H. Kempner family of Galveston.

[4] On January 17, 2001, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, attributing its problems to lower sales for refined sugar as well as higher energy costs.

[8] On February 7, 2008, an explosion at a Port Wentworth, Georgia, sugar refinery killed 14 people and injured more than 40.

A spokesman for Dreyfus group said the acquisition was part of the company's efforts to expand into refining and distribution of sugar.

They were sued by the US Department of Justice who claimed in a statement that the deal was anticompetitive and would “leave an overwhelming majority of refined sugar sales across the Southeast in the hands of only two producers”.