 A 1929 specimen stock certificate given as a reference copy to the NYSE. | |
| Industry | Sugar refinery |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1891 |
| Founder | Henry Osborne Havemeyer |
| Headquarters | |
TheAmerican Sugar Refining Company (ASR) was the most significant American business unit in thesugar refining industry in the early 1900s. It had interests in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean locations and operated one of the world's largest sugar refineries, theDomino Sugar Refinery inBrooklyn,New York.
The Domino brand name was acquired in 2001 by Florida Crystals Corporation and rebranded asAmerican Sugar Refining,[1] a new company created in 1998 and unrelated to the prior firm by that name.
The Sugar Refineries Company or Sugar Trust was incorporated in late 1887,[2] withHenry Osborne Havemeyer as president.[3] Sugar Trust was forced to reorganize after theSherman Antitrust Act of 1890 outlawedtrusts that formedmonopolies, such as the Sugar Trust.[2][4] The ASR was incorporated inJersey City, New Jersey on January 10, 1891 by Henry Osborne Havemeyer, with $50 million in capital.[5][6] By 1907, it owned or controlled 98% of the sugar processing capacity in the United States.[7][5][8]
TheUnited States Supreme Court declared inUnited States v. E. C. Knight Company (1895) that its purchase of the stock of competitors was not a combination inrestraint of trade.[9] By 1901, the company had $90 million in capital.[5] The company became known asDomino Sugar in 1900.[citation needed]
The combinationexpanded horizontally for about twenty years as new competitors arose; later, itexpanded vertically, undertaking the production ofcane sugar andraw sugar in Cuba and acquiring lumber interests. In May 1896, the American Sugar Refining Company became one of the original 12 companies in theDow Jones Industrial Average. The company was investigated by theIndustrial Commission in 1900 and by a specialcongressional committee in 1911–1912.
In 1910, the federal government began a suit to dissolve the company,[10] which was accused of having secured favorable tariff legislation by corrupt means.[11] American Sugar opposed free trade with Cuba in order to maintain tariff protections for processed sugar, while pushing for privileged importation of raw sugar.[12] By 1929, the company was producing over a fifth of the refined sugar consumed in the United States, at five refineries processing sugar from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Louisiana.[13] In Cuba it owned 500 square miles of land, 191 miles of railroad, and two factories producing 600 million pounds of raw sugar annually.[13]
American Sugar Refining Company dominated thesugar industry in the United States through most of the 20th Century. Its brands included the dominant Domino Sugar,Franklin Sugar,Sunny Cane Sugar, and its West Coastbeet sugar operation under theSpreckels brand. It had major refineries inBrooklyn;Charlestown, Massachusetts;[14]Philadelphia,Baltimore,Chalmette, Louisiana; andSpreckels, California.
In the early 1970s, the company made major investments inhigh-fructose corn syrup production, and changed its name toAmstar Corporation (ASR).[15] It moved its headquarters from120 Wall Street to1251 Avenue of the Americas inMidtown Manhattan.
In 1975, Amstar sued pizza chainDomino's Pizza fortrademark infringement; Amstar won at trial but lost on appeal.[16]
With investments in food-picking and handling machinery companies in theMidwestern United States, the company faced a takeover by the British sugar companyTate & Lyle in 1980.[citation needed] How long this lasted is uncertain.
Amstar was acquired byKohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1983; KKR sold Amstar toMerrill Lynch three years later.[17][18]
Domino Sugar was acquired by British companyTate & Lyle in 1988.[19]
In 2001, Domino Sugar officially changed its name to Domino Foods, Inc.[15] The same year, Domino Foods was sold by Tate & Lyle toAmerican Sugar Refining, a new company created in 1998 and unrelated to the prior firm by that name, and theSugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in a $180 million deal[20] that was closed on November 6, 2001.
Privately held American Sugar Refining is owned by the Florida Crystals Corporation company, part of FLO-SUN, a sugar empire ofthe Fanjul Brothers whose origins are traced to Spanish-Cuban sugar plantations of the early 19th century. American Sugar Refining also owns two of its former significant competitors,C&H Sugar (California and Hawaii), purchased in 2005, and Jack Frost (National Sugar Company).
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