When the publicity-shy Fanjuls have been mentioned in the media, it has usually been in controversial circumstances. Two years ago one of the brothers was said to have called President Bill Clinton when he was with Monica Lewinsky to express his opposition to new legislation protecting the Florida Everglades.

The Fanjuls have also gained influence in politics, which has helped defend the government sugar program of which they are a major beneficiary.

Indeed, the brothers have been so colorful that Robert DeNiro has reportedly bought the movie rights to their lives.

Whatever criticisms have been leveled at the Fanjuls, their success in producing sugar, the family business for 150 years, has never been in question.

"We are buying this business (Domino) so we can grow and expand," said Pepe, who along with his brother was interviewed exclusively by Dow Jones Newswires last week.

"We want to be the most efficient sugar producer in the U.S. and want to make Domino the most important brand in America," added Pepe, who, like his older brother, wore an expensive-looking Italian suit at the interview, which took place in midtown Manhattan.

Achieving that efficiency will require smoother labor relations than under Tate & Lyle's ownership, when the Brooklyn, N.Y., Domino site was on strike for 18 months. The Fanjuls say they don't plan job cuts. They also say they hope to develop staff within the company, applying a management system in which employees get to know them personally.

Now Third-Largest Producer Of Refined Sugar In US

With their purchase, made in partnership with the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, the Fanjuls' combined sugar holdings will make them the third largest player in the U.S. refined sugar market, producing more than 2.3 million tons a year. At current prices that translates into more than $1 billion a year in sales.

Through their holding company, Flo-Sun Inc., the family has investments in agriculture, real estate, resorts and power generation, with assets in U.S., Europe, and the Dominican Republic, where they operate the world's largest sugar mill. They are one of the main suppliers of rice consumed in Florida. Forbes magazine estimates the brothers' net worth at $500 million.

The growth of the Fanjuls' sugar business is in stark contrast to the struggle most U.S. producers have endured in recent years, marked by a string of factory closures and by the bankruptcy protection sought by Imperial Sugar Cor. (IPRL), the largest marketer of the sweetener in the U.S.

"At the end of the day, they had too much leverage," said Alfy about Imperial, which is expected to emerge from Chapter 11 next month. "What brought the business down was the money they borrowed" to buy other companies such as Savannah Foods & Industries, Inc.

"You cannot get too much leverage in a cyclical business like sugar where storms, drought can hurt a crop overnight," he adds.

Some charge that the Fanjuls' company, and some other large producers, owe their success to U.S. import controls, which have maintained domestic prices at more than double the world price.

But the brothers both insist they would thrive in a free market and commit to keep out imports.

"We're one of the most efficient sugar producers in the world," said Pepe. "If the world market was to become a free trade market, it would have to reflect the average production cost of all producers - In that case, Brazil (the world's lowest cost producer) will survive, the U.S. will survive, but the European Union (with heavy subsidies) would probably disappear."

He reiterated that the U.S. sugar industry views the world market as a repository for used to "dump" sugar surpluses from countries that are "heavily subsidized."

"The bottom line is that almost every single country in the world has some type of mechanism to protect their sugar industry," said Alfy, pledging to continue the fight to keep foreign sugar off American soil. "We will work hard for that," he said.

Any different view would be surprising given the Fanjuls' dogged buildup of their sugar operation after being ousted from Cuba in 1959.

Alfy, who took his time to size up this journalist, recalled their start in the early 1960s, when the family bought three mills in Louisiana, took them apart and transported them by barge to South Florida.

"A friend of mine even asked me at the time, are you sure you can put this thing back together again'"? he said, laughing heartily.

It may be another challenge to put together some profits at Domino, which Tate & Lyle sold precisely because of dwindling margins in the U.S.

"You pay for what you get," reckons Alfy. "Let's face it: we're buying a troubled business. The key question is what you do with it, how you create value for your shareholders."