Savannah Sugar Refining or Dixie Crystals

Savannah Sugar Refining Corporation was formed in June,1916 by Benjamin Oxnard. In 1917, the first refined sugar was manufactured by the company. It chose the name Dixie Crystals to sell the products. When it started its operation the company had 19 million pounds of raw sugar at 5 cents a pound

Savannah Sugar Refining was set up at an excellent time. With the onset of World War 1, sugar shortage was created and with rising demands the US government had to take control of its production process. After the war, the government controls were removed and raw sugar prices from Cuba began to increase. The rate of raw materials increased at an alarming pace due to the false assumption by refinery managements, that there was a worldwide shortage.

However, prices were adjusted, but a number of companies were caught up with huge orders of high priced raws. Savannah Sugar Refining lost a million dollars on 10,000 tons of raw which was supposed to run the refinery for about 3 weeks.
After Oxnards death in 1924, his sons joined the company and the year after, William, Richard Sprague, Oxnards partners son joined the company. Savannah Sugar Refining became a member of the Sugar Institute in the late 1920s. The company managed to remain in business even during the Great Depression.
In 1936, the company provided the stockholders a four-for-one split on their shares and employees were given a bonus of 10% of their yearly salaries. And sugar was being marketed in paper bags from 1938 as they repelled moisture more than the cloth bags. In 1949, due to the decline in the market for blackstrap molasses, the companys main by-product, sales fell considerably. And in the early part of the 1960s, sugar consumption began to rise around the world but extremely low prices forced many sugar producers to stop production. But Savannah Sugar Refining Corporation somehow emerged as the only refinery in the US to record profits in 1963.
In 1963, the sugar industry was in a chaos but Savannah Sugar Refining Corporation opened Everglades Sugar Refinery, Inc. and in the mid-1960s the organization was caught up among many takeover attempts. But the company started acquiring other companies and in 1969 Savannah Foods and Industries was established as a successor to Savannah Sugar Refining Corporation.
During 1915 and 1916, Benjamin Oxnard wanted to set up a sugar refinery on the South Atlantic Coast as his company Adeline saw a series of setbacks. But, gathering funds was not easy for him and when Jim Imbrie agreed to finance his company, he proposed that it be based in Savannah. After consulting his partner, Richard Sprague, he set up Savannah Sugar Refining Corporation in 1916 in Savannah, Georgia. Imperialsugar