Area growers have always had as high a stake in the success of the Sidney Holly Sugar plant as does the company itself. For this reason, growers and company officials have cooperated through the years to ensure the success of the sugar industry as a whole and to improve the capabilities of the Sidney factory in particular. One of these cooperative efforts resulted in the formation of the Rocky Mountain Silo Company in 1995.

That year, the growers and the company formed a joint venture limited liability company, the Rocky Mountain Silo Company. Growers put up 60% of the over $6 million price tag, and Holly Sugar put up the remaining 40% of the money to build ten concrete storage silos which hold and store the finished sugar until buyers purchase the product.

Don Steinbeisser, president of the Beet Growers Association, explains, "For the past 30 years, growers have always paid 60% of storage and packaging costs of the finished sugar. We never showed ownership in buildings, but with the joint limited liability venture, the growers now have 60% ownership in the silo storage facilities."

Richard Metcalf, Sidney Holly Sugar warehouse manager, adds, "After sugar is processed, growers share in the cost of packaging, storage and shipping. Since growers pay 60% of these costs, they wanted their name on the title of any such storage facility. The company agreed, so for that reason growers formed the limited liability company with Holly Sugar to build and maintain these storage silos."

A combination of factors led to the formation of the Rocky Mountain Silo Company. Both growers and Holly Sugar realized that inadequate storage cost the company and the growers money. The Sidney plant only had four small silos and one Weibull storage bin. Combined, these facilities could only store 630,000 hundredweight of sugar. This forced the company to sell sugar at less than opportune times. "During campaign, we'd have to sell sugar at a discount just to get rid of it, simply because we didn't have enough storage," Steinbeisser comments.

Metcalf agrees. "In January, February and March, all sugar companies had full warehouses, and we'd have to sell sugar for whatever we could get for it," Metcalf remarks. "We knew we'd have a better market edge if we could store the additional sugar until later on in the summer."

As well, the company had to package and ship excess sugar to public warehousing in large cities for storage, where it came under the control of a third party. The cost of storage in these outside warehouses began to increase enormously. "It got to the point where we either had to fire sale our extra sugar and sell at low prices, or spend a lot of money on public storage facilities," Metcalf says. "It cost everyone a lot of money and put our sugar outside our control. Both growers and company came to the common consensus that we needed this storage facility. It benefits all of us."

The storage issue also tied in with the expansion issue. Increased storage would allow an expansion in grower acres, another benefit to both growers and company.

So, in 1995, area growers and Holly Sugar joined together to form the Rocky Mountain Silo Company. Holly Sugar leased the necessary land to the limited liability company, which then built ten storage silos that have the capacity to store 1.2 million hundredweight of sugar, bringing the total storage capacity of the Sidney plant to 1.83 million hundredweight of sugar. The Rocky Mountain Silo Company also built a small conditioning bin. Sugar fresh from the factory goes to the conditioning bin first, where it is cooled to the proper temperature before entering permanent storage.

Growers from the Worland and Torrington plants also have a share in the Rocky Mountain Silo Company. "All growers, including those from Worland and Torrington, have a share in the limited liability company," Steinbeisser points out. "However, Sidney growers own the lion's share of it because we are the largest factory."

Metcalf points out that the silo storage facility has provided a lot of advantages that the growers and company did not enjoy prior to the construction of the additional storage space. "The biggest plus is the increased flexibility," Metcalf says. "We have the opportunity to take advantage of better market prices, as well as custom packaging for individual customers."

Metcalf explains that normally the price of sugar increases towards the end of the summer, when storage bins are empty. If companies can store sugar and wait until summer to sell, they can often realize a better price for their product. "It depends on the year and the sugar market," Metcalf states, "but with this storage capability, we like to keep some of our sugar till campaign start-up. We often ship a large portion of our stored sugar in the fall."

Metcalf also points out that it is better to ship cool, conditioned sugar, rather than sugar fresh from the factory, as conditioned sugar doesn't lump and stick in the containers and rail cars, as unconditioned sugar may do.

The silo storage facility also allows for better control of the product. Silos permit the company to better serve the customers, providing sugar according to customer specifications. "The silo system allows us to ship large amounts of sugar specifically suited to customer specifications," Metcalf advises. "It also allows us to better market our product."

The building of the ten storage silos has also made it possible for the Sidney Holly Sugar plant to become a Gerber Certified Supplier. "We went through a series of tests to prove we consistently met their expectations and certifications," Metcalf comments. "Thanks to the silos, we can now meet customer custom packaging requirements and sugar specification requirements."

Steinbeisser adds, "Gerber no longer has to inspect our sugar. They receive a consistent quality and have a guaranteed supply. The silo storage facilities made this possible. The Rocky Mountain Silo Company has been good for us. We now have sugar year round. This allows us to store our sugar and to market it in an orderly fashion, year round."

The Rocky Mountain Silo Company expects to have the silos completely paid for by the end of 2001.