- An American Farming Company
- Founded during the Great Depression (1931)
- Our founder, Charles Stewart Mott, was a visionary farmer (Mott apples cider), a businessman (General Motors) and a philanthropist (Mott Foundation, Mott Children’s Health Center, Mott Community Center, and many others…)
- Our Company will be 90 years-old next year (2021)
- Headquartered in Clewiston, Florida, America’s Sweetest Town
- All of our land holdings are in Florida, primarily south of Lake Okeechobee
- Owned primarily by charitable foundations and our employees (through an ESOP)
- More than 2500 employee-owners
- Original Clewiston Mill and equipment came from Pennsylvania Sugar Company (PENNSUCO) located in SW Dade County, managed by the Graham family(yes, that Graham family), after that effort failed in the mid-1920s
- We farm sugarcane, citrus, sweet corn, green beans, broccoli, squash and more than a dozen other fresh vegetables
- Our Southern Gardens Citrus orange groves are built on former cattle pastures
- Our Sugarland Ranch cattle operations were world-renown for Brahman cattle
- Sugarland Ranch’s most famous bull was named “Avignon”
- Our cane molasses, a co-product of the sugar making process, is sold as a liquid cattle feed under the brand, Sugalik
- We are the only American farming company that transports its harvested crop from the field to the factory via its own private railroad, our sugarcane train
- We also own a short-line railroad, the South Central Florida Express (SCFE), which is also headquartered in Clewiston, Florida
- Railroad operations include 24 modern locomotives (and one vintage steam locomotive), more than 300 miles of track and 850 customized, recylcled railcars for hauling harvested sugarcane from our sugarcane fields to the Clewiston Sugar Factory during the October-May harvest season
- Each railcar holds 40 tons of cane (approx. one acre) & keeps 2000 semi-trucks off our highways and reduces carbon emissions
- We located one of our original steam locomotives (Engine #148), restored it, and plan to provide rides to the public on the Sugar Express in the future (see her FaceBook page Engine No 148)
- Engine #148 runs on recycled vegetable oil, a clean and renewable domestic fuel
- Many of our employees are long-term, multi-generational families who live in our local communities—with good paying jobs that run the gamut from farmers, equipment operators, scientists, mechanics, engineers, instrument technicians to accountants, IT designers, draftsmen, employment specialists and locomotive engineers
- Our Board of Directors has had only four chairmen in its history, and our current chairman is the great-grandson of our founder (who was our first Chairman of the Board)
- While producing food crops is our primary business, we also produce clean, renewable energy as another co-product of the sugar-making process. Energy from the sugarcane stalk powers our entire sugar-making process and usually produces a surplus
- We produce enough surplus electricity to power 25,000-30,000 South Florida homes a year
- Learn more about our company on www.ussugar.com, FB U.S. Sugar, @ussugarfla and USSugarFLA