Amalgamated Sugar Company - 1930s

1930s

Because of blight and drought, many factories were closed for several years over the 1930s. For instance, only four factories operated in 1931.

During The Great Depression, the Beet Growers Credit Corporation was organized, backed by the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank and Federal Farm Marketing Administration. Persistance of H. A. Benning resulted in separation of Amalgamated Sugar from American Beet Sugar on June 15, 1932, and the general office in Ogden was re-staffed. 1932 saw a new production record, with 603,615 tons of beets produced into 97,928 tons of sugar, nearly 2 million hundredweight bags.

In 1933, the Smithfield, Utah factory was permanently closed, then moved beginning in 1934 to the Clarksburg, California, thanks to the Jones-Costigan Act. The factory began operation on July 31, 1935.

1934 was a difficult year, with only two factories, Lewiston and Missoula, in operation due the blight. In 1935, while planted area was low, 12,373 acres (50.07 km2) contracted in 1935, versus 21,389 acres (86.56 km2) in 1934, the blight-resistant seed variety was used for the first time. Yields were drastically higher than previous years, and five of eight factories were operated.

The Paul factory, shuttered since 1926, was reopened and renovated in 1936. Also in that year, Amalgamated sold the Missoula and Clarksburg factories to American Crystal Sugar Company (the successor of the American Beet Sugar Company), leaving Amalgamated's six remaining factories in Utah and Idaho. Amalgamated also recapitalized, leading to a complete separation from American Crystal.

The company acquired the White Satin trademark on November 29, 1934 to use for marketing its sugar.

Experimentations with growing sugar beets near Nyssa, Oregon, conducted by Amalgamated's Idaho District Manager R. H. Tallman, had begun in 1935. Yields were very favorable, in part due to the Owyhee Irrigation Project, completed in 1932. This led to plans for a factory in 1937, made possible by a $2 million loan from the Bankers Trust Company. The factory was completed in 1938, with operation beginning on October 9, 1938. The factory was designed and built by Amalgamated Sugar, the first they had fully built, and had a radically different layout than other factories. The factory was located at 43°52′31″N 116°59′26″W / 43.875298°N 116.990629°W / 43.875298; -116.990629, on both the Union Pacific Railroad lines and along U.S. Route 20.

In 1937, Amalgamated, Utah-Idaho, American Crystal, and Great Western formed the Western Seed Production Corporation was incorporated in Arizona to produce sugar beet seed. This was needed because European suppliers were impacted by the lead-up to World War II and were also uninterested in developing blight-resistant seed. The Logan factory, idle since 1926, was also dismantled during 1937.

Because of the successful sugar production in Nyssa, Amalgamated became interested in additional marketing in Washington and Oregon. Mailliard and Schmiedell were contracted in 1938 to promote White Satin in the two states, paying special attention to proclaiming it as "Oregon's Own and Only Sugar." An office was established in Portland, Oregon in 1938.

In 1939, the company began selling wet beet pulp, a byproduct of manufacturing, as sheep and cattle feed. They sold it in the Twin Falls and Nyssa areas, feeding 8400 head of cattle and 15,000 head of sheep. A pulp drying operation was installed in 1941 at the Nyssa plant, allowing the pulp feed to be transported more easily.