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Amalgamated switches to Montana hauler ...
New employer will make local hires
By Aaron Brock, The Times-News
January 4, 2001
 
With exhaust from the Amalgamated Sugar Co. in the background, a Circle A Construction truck hauls a load from the plant. Circle A will not haul beets for Amalgamated Sugar after September, as the company awarded a transport bid Tuesday to Transystems Inc., of Great Falls, Mont.
AARON BROCK/The Times-News
PAUL -- The Amalgamated Sugar Co. will employ a new trucking company to haul sugar beets, ending a relationship with Circle A Construction that dates back to the late 1960s.

Transystems Inc., a Great Falls, Mont., company, won a bid Tuesday to serve Amalgamated Sugar across Idaho. It will take over the hauling operations on Sept. 1.

Circle A -- which typically employs around 900 people annually -- might not hire as much seasonal help as it has in the past. But Transystems' hiring might offset these layoffs.

"We don't anticipate the loss of Idaho jobs," said Brian Whipple, transportation manager for Amalgamated Sugar. "We really think they're going to be drawing from the same local pool."

Dan Rice, vice president of marketing for Transystems, said his company is already taking steps to set up Magic Valley headquarters.

"I would expect that we will have our plan pretty well set on hiring and benefits within 30 days," Rice said.

Working all over the Northwest, Transystems hauls 10 million to 12 million tons of beets annually, Rice said. Acquiring the job with Amalgamated Sugar, the Northwest's largest sugar producer, should boost this number by more than 5 million tons a year.

Circle A had hauled beets for the Twin Falls and Paul branches since 1968, said Circle A vice president Steve Aslett.

"It's a surprise," Aslett said. "We've had a really good working relationship over the years. But that's competition."

Amalgamated officials said the change was based purely on economics.

Circle A employees "have been excellent people to work with," said John Schorr, the agriculture manager at the Paul plant. "They've done an excellent job."

Amalgamated Sugar would not say how much money is being saved, but the amount was "significant," Whipple said.

"There was no question about what had to be done," he said.

Transystems also will replace Idaho Sand and Gravel, a Nampa company that had hauled beets for Amalgamated in western Idaho.