Domino Foods

Last updated
Domino Foods, Inc.
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Food industry
Founded1807 as W. & F.C. Havemeyer Company
FoundersWilliam Havemeyer, Frederick Havemeyer
Headquarters
Yonkers, New York
,
United States
Area served
 United States
Products Sugar
Parent American Sugar Refining

Domino Foods, Inc. (also known as DFI and formerly known as W. & F.C. Havemeyer Company, Havemeyer, Townsend & Co. Refinery, and Domino Sugar) is a privately held sugar marketing and sales company based in Yonkers, New York, United States, that sells products produced by its manufacturing members. DFI distributes sugar to retailers under four brand names across the U.S: Domino,C&H,Florida Crystals, and Redpath. Its namesake product, the Domino Sugar brand name, whose products are generally sold in two-tone packaging (white on top, yellow on bottom) with blue labeling text, is the best known.[ by whom? ] Domino Foods is the largest sugar company in the United States.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Domino Sugar has been a renowned brand in the United States East Coast markets for more than 100 years. The brand name, Domino, was officially adopted in 1901 by a New York–based sugar company. Later, the distinctive yellow bags of Domino Sugar became the highly recognizable packaging of granulated sugar. In recent years, the brand has expanded its portfolio of all-natural sweeteners to include agave nectar. Domino Foods owns three major U.S. refineries, located in Yonkers, New York; Baltimore, Maryland; and Chalmette, Louisiana, with a combined production capacity of 2.2 million metric tons of sugar per year. [1] It is owned by the controversial Fanjul brothers.

History

Crystal Domino sugar ad, 1910 Crystal Domino sugar newspaper ad.png
Crystal Domino sugar ad, 1910

In 1799, William Havemeyer, who had been an apprentice of a London sugar refiner, was hired by Edmund Seaman to manage his sugar refinery in New York City. His brother, Frederick Havemeyer, joined him in 1802. [2] In 1807, the brothers opened their own sugar refining business called W. & F.C. Havemeyer Company on Vandam Street. [2] In 1859, the business moved to the waterfront in Williamsburg, and changed its name to the Havemeyer, Townsend & Co. Refinery. The company processed slave-grown sugar canes. [3] By 1864, the refinery was the most modern of its time.[ by whom? ] After a fire destroyed the refinery in 1882, the current plant was rebuilt and was the largest sugar refinery in the United States. After the Sugar Trust was ruled illegal in 1891, Henry Osborne Havemeyer and Theodore A. Havemeyer were elected as chairman and president, respectively, of the American Sugar Refining Company. In May 1896, American Sugar became one of the original 12 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. [4]

The company subsequently acquired five additional sugar refineries and changed its official name to "Domino Sugar" in 1900; the name change was officially recognized by the patent office on October 8, 1901. [5] In 1916, Domino introduced individually wrapped sugar tablets.[ citation needed ]

Domino Sugars plant in Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore, Maryland's Domino Sugar Sign At Night.jpg
Domino Sugars plant in Baltimore, Maryland

In 1970, the American Sugar Company was renamed "The Amstar Corporation". [6] In 1975, Amstar sued pizza chain Domino's Pizza for trademark infringement; Amstar won at trial but lost on appeal. [7] Amstar was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1983; KKR sold Amstar to Merrill Lynch three years later. [8] [9] Domino Sugar was acquired by British company Tate & Lyle in 1988. [10]

In 2001, Domino Sugar officially changed its name to Domino Foods, Inc. [6] The same year, Domino Foods was sold by Tate & Lyle to American Sugar Refining (owned by the Florida Crystals Corporation) and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in a $180 million deal [11] that was closed on November 6, 2001. Florida Crystals, a privately held company, is part of FLO-SUN, a sugar empire of the Fanjul Brothers whose origins trace to Spanish-Cuban sugar plantations of the early 19th century.

In 2009, Domino had its Domino Granulated Sugar and Florida Crystals brands certified as carbon neutral by the Carbonfund.org Foundation. It began including the foundation's CarbonFree partner logo on product packaging. [12] The certification involved carbon offsets as well as changes to the production process. [13] Some commentators noted in response that it was chemically impossible for sucrose ( C 12 H 22 O 11) to be free of carbon. [13] [14] [15] The company issued a statement to clarify that "CarbonFree" referred to the production process rather than the product itself, and was not the same as the phrase "carbon free". [16]

In 2012, Two Trees bought the Domino Sugar Refinery site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, for $185 million. In October 2014, several of the buildings at the site were demolished, including the Syrup Shed, the Wash House, the Turbine Room, the Power House, and the Pump House. [17] As of 2023, construction is ongoing to redevelop the refinery into a mixed-use development containing office space, commercial space, residential towers, and parkland. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar</span> Sweet-tasting, water-soluble carbohydrates

Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double sugars, are molecules made of two bonded monosaccharides; common examples are sucrose, lactose, and maltose. White sugar is a refined form of sucrose. In the body, compound sugars are hydrolysed into simple sugars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sucrose</span> Disaccharide made of glucose and fructose

Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula C
12H
22O
11.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown sugar</span> Sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown colour

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is by tradition an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content, but is now often produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domino's</span> American multinational pizza restaurant chain

Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware-domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor Township, near Ann Arbor, Michigan. As of 2018, Domino's had approximately 15,000 stores, with 5,649 in the United States, 1,500 in India, and 1,249 in the United Kingdom. Domino's has stores in over 83 countries and 5,701 cities worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tate & Lyle</span> British-based multinational agribusiness

Tate & Lyle PLC is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage products to food and industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s, it began to diversify, eventually divesting its sugar business in 2010. It specialises in turning raw materials such as corn and tapioca into ingredients that add taste, texture, and nutrients to food and beverages. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar refinery</span> Factory which processes raw sugar into white sugar

A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden syrup</span> Thick amber-colored form of inverted sugar syrup

Golden syrup or light treacle is a thick, amber-coloured form of inverted sugar syrup made by the process of refining sugar cane or sugar beet juice into sugar. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance and consistency similar to honey, and is often used as a substitute where honey is unavailable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California and Hawaiian Sugar Company</span> American sugar company

California and Hawaiian Sugar Company is an American sugar processing and distribution company. Originally organized as a cooperative in 1921, it encountered a severe decline in sugar markets and passed through a series of owners in the latter half of the 20th century. In 2017, its Crockett, California, refinery processed its last shipment of Hawaiian sugar but continues to produce sugar from other locations. The Crockett Refinery employs more than 450 people and produces 14% of the nation's cane sugar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Osborne Havemeyer</span> American businessman (1847–1907)

Henry Osborne Havemeyer was an American industrialist, entrepreneur and sugar refiner who founded and became president of the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sugar Refining Company</span> Former American manufacturer

The American Sugar Refining Company (ASR) was the most significant American business unit in the sugar refining industry in the early 1900s. It had interests in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean locations and operated one of the world's largest sugar refineries, the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, New York.

The Fanjul family —Cuban born brothers Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul Jr., José "Pepe" Fanjul, Alexander Fanjul, and Andres Fanjul—are owners of Fanjul Corp., a vast sugar and real estate conglomerate. It comprises the subsidiaries Domino Sugar, Florida Crystals, C&H Sugar, Redpath Sugar, former Tate & Lyle sugar companies, and American Sugar Refining. Fanjul Corp. also owns a 35% stake in Central Romana Corporation of La Romana, Dominican Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sugar Refining</span> Privately held cane sugar refining company

American Sugar Refining, Inc. is a large privately held cane sugar refining company, with a production capacity of 6.5 million tons of sugar. The company produces a full line of consumer, industrial, food service, and specialty sweetener products. In 2013, it adopted the corporate brand name ASR Group. Its ownership structure is based on a partnership which includes the Florida Crystals Corporation, part of FLO-SUN, a sugar empire of the Fanjul brothers whose origins go back to Spanish-Cuban sugar plantations of the early 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Havemeyer</span> American businessman

Theodore Augustus Havemeyer was an American businessman who was the first president of the U.S. Golf Association and co-founder of the Newport Country Club, host to both the first U.S. Amateur and the first U.S. Open in 1895.

Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida is an agricultural enterprise that harvests, transports and processes sugarcane grown primarily in Palm Beach County, Florida and markets the raw sugar and blackstrap molasses through the Florida Sugar and Molasses Exchange. The Cooperative is made up of 45 grower-owners who produce sugarcane on approximately 70,000 acres, located in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). The raw sugar is marketed to one of the ASR Group's sugar refineries. The Cooperative produces more than 350,000 tons of raw sugar annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domino Sugar Refinery</span> Development and former refinery in New York City

The Domino Sugar Refinery is a mixed-use development and former sugar refinery in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City, along the East River. When active as a refinery, it was operated by the Havemeyer family's American Sugar Refining Company, which produced Domino brand sugar and was one of several sugar factories on the East River in northern Brooklyn.

Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul Jr. is an American billionaire businessman, and the eldest of the Fanjul brothers, who control a sugar and real estate business valued at US$8.2 billion. Alfy Fanjul is often criticized as the Fanjul brother that most often donates to the Democratic Party seeking political favors, and in particular, seeking to ensure the continuation of the governmental price support of sugar that the Fanjul family company, Domino Sugar, most directly benefits from.

José Francisco "Pepe" Fanjul is a Cuban-born businessman. He is the second eldest of the Fanjul brothers, who control a sugar and real estate business valued at US$8.2 billion. Pepe Fanjul is often criticized as the Fanjul brother that most often donates to the Republican Party seeking political favors, and in particular, seeking to ensure the continuation of the governmental price support of sugar that the Fanjul family company, Domino Sugar, most directly benefits from.

The Havemeyer family is a prominent New York family of German origin that owned significant sugar refining interests in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Arbuckle (businessman)</span> American businessman (1838–1912)

John Arbuckle was an American businessman who founded Arbuckle Brothers Company, a coffee roasting and sugar refining company.

The Franklin Sugar Refinery was a steam-powered, brick building constructed starting in 1866 on Almond and Swanson Streets by the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Two decades later it had expanded into the surrounding blocks. The Franklin Sugar Refining Company was formed as a corporation controlled by various firms of which Charles Custis Harrison was the senior partner. In 1892 the Franklin Sugar Refinery was sold to the American Sugar Refining Company in an effort to monopolize the sugar refining industry within the United States. It continued to operate under the same name for several decades. Other refineries operating in Philadelphia at that time were the Spreckels Company, the Pennsylvania Sugar Refining Co., and E. C. Knight & Co.

References

  1. ↑ "Domino Sugar - ASR Group". American Sugar Refining . Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  2. 1 2 Pederson (1999)
  3. ↑ Thomas, Zoe (2019-08-29). "The hidden links between slavery and Wall Street". BBC News . Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  4. ↑ Planes, Alex (April 9, 2013). "What Happened to the First 12 Stocks on the Dow?". The Motley Fool . Archived from the original on November 11, 2019. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  5. ↑ Diamond, Anna (December 19, 2017). "These Photos of the Abandoned Domino Sugar Refinery Document Its Sticky History". Smithsonian . Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Sugar Products, Baking Tips, Sweet Recipes, & More - Domino Sugar". dominosugar.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Amstar Corp. v. Domino's Pizza, Inc., 615 F.2d 252, 260 (5th Cir. 1980)
  8. ↑ "Amstar-Kohlberg". The New York Times . 1983-10-22. p. 34. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-04-07.
  9. ↑ "Amstar Sale Plan Reported". The New York Times . 1986-09-19. p. 15. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-04-07.
  10. ↑ Henry, Kristine (2001-06-19). "Profits sour, Domino Sugar for sale". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  11. ↑ Berk, Michele (November 6, 2001). "Domino Sugar sale closes". Baltimore Business Journal . Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  12. ↑ "Domino debuts CarbonFree sugar line". Food Business News. Vol. 5. 2009. p. 45. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  13. 1 2 Romm, Joe (May 3, 2009). "Offsets gone wild: Domino's Certified Carbonfree Sugar!". ThinkProgress . Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  14. ↑ Taranto, James (September 14, 2012). "A River in Egypt". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  15. ↑ Bailey, Ronald (September 17, 2012). "Carbon Free Sugar?". Reason . Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  16. ↑ Romm 2009, citing "Q&A". Domino Sugar. Archived from the original on October 19, 2009. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Domino Sugar Factory Brooklyn - Two Trees Management Domino". The Real Deal New York. 20 October 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  18. ↑ Cuozzo, Steve (May 24, 2016). "Brooklyn's waterfront future starts with Domino Sugar site". New York Post. Archived from the original on June 21, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.

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