In a deal signed at 1 a.m. Thursday, Florida Crystals and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative agreed to buy Domino, the nation's leading sugar brand, from London-based Tate & Lyle PLC, the world's largest sugar grower. Florida Crystals, based in West Palm Beach, and the Belle Glade-based co-op will spend $180 million in cash and up to $25 million payable over four years -- contingent on Domino's performance -- for the sugar brand.

"It surely is a monumental step in the development of the U.S. sugar industry," said Reg McQuaid, a researcher with New Jersey-based B.W. Dyer & Co. economists and food brokers.

The deal ended months of speculation about the future of the Tate & Lyle North American Sugars Inc., owner of Domino Sugar. Parent Tate & Lyle Plc, traded on the London stock exchange, has been trying to rid itself of its money-losing U.S. operations, including the Domino refineries in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, Baltimore and Chalmette, La. Tate & Lyle lost $25 million on its Domino operations for the budget year ended in March.

It also is selling its six Western Sugar beet refineries to the Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Cooperative.

In London, analysts expressed relief on hearing news of the deal.

"The U.S. sugar business is just dysfunctional," said Phil Spencer, an analyst with Deutsche Bank. Mark Robinson, Tate & Lyle's director of investor relations, said the company will apply the proceeds from the sale to its debt.

Privately held Florida Crystals is owned and operated by the Fanjul family of Palm Beach. The cooperative has 56 members.

The deal is expected to close by December, pending completion of financing arrangements and clearance by U.S. antitrust authorities. The deal must be approved by the Federal Trade Commission.

The buy is seen as part of the continued consolidation of the sugar industry, in which sugar beet and sugar cane growers have added refining and packaging sugar to their farming efforts. Selling the finished product as well as growing it allows the companies a better chance at making a profit.

Prices paid to sugar growers for a pound of raw sugar have hovered in the neighborhood of 21 cents, just barely above what growers say is break-even level.

"What this reflects is the refined sugar sellers' reaction to the sharply lower prices they've been receiving for the last several years," said Jack Roney, communications director for the American Sugar Alliance in Washington. "The only buyers that seem to be willing to go into this business are those who are already growing sugar."

The third of Florida's major sugar growers, Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar Corp., said the Domino deal is part of a national trend.

"The whole industry is consolidating, and everyone is trying to become more efficient," spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said.

Domino-Florida Crystals would be the nation's third-largest sugar producer.

The nation's top sugar company, bankrupt Imperial Sugar of Sugar Land, Texas, plans to sell some of its beet-processing plants and will relinquish some of its 30 percent market share.

After those sales, market shares in the neighborhood of 20 percent would be held by Imperial, U.S. Sugar and its marketing partner, United Sugars, and Domino-Florida Crystals.

On Thursday, brothers Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul, Florida Crystals' chairman and CEO, and Jose "Pepe" Fanjul, the company's vice chairman, president and chief operating officer, toured the Domino refinery in Baltimore and talked to workers.

"We told the employees they will become an all-American company," Alfy Fanjul said.

In the afternoon, the Fanjul brothers met with employees at the Brooklyn refinery. Today, they head to Louisiana for a tour of the Chalmette refinery.

susan_salisbury@pbpost.com