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Big crowd turns out for meeting on Western Sugar purchase
The Casper Star Tribune
January 12, 2001
 

Leo Hoehn (left) and Rick Griffith (right) discuss the proposed sale of Western Sugar and Holly Sugar to new grower cooperatives.
ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) - A crowd of 180 packed the Alliance Country Club to learn more about progress in a proposed purchase of Western Sugar factories by a multi-state cooperative of sugar beet growers. Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Cooperative counsel Randon Wilson of Salt Lake City and organization president Rick Dorn of Hardin, Mont., said Tuesday the timing of the purchase was important.

Industry experts believe sugar prices have bottomed out and growers would never get another opportunity to buy Western Sugars' six factories for $78 million, Wilson said.

If the cooperative does not buy Western Sugar from its parent company Tate & Lyle North America Sugars, its assets probably will be liquidated, Dorn said.

Growers are being asked to make a down payment of $35 per acre by the end of January and another $150 per acre by the end of February to join the cooperative's buyout effort.

Meetings also were scheduled for Bridgeport and Scottsbluff.

The six factories are in Billings, Mont.; Lovell, Wyo.; Greeley and Fort Morgan, Colo.; and Scottsbluff and Bayard.