CORAL GABLES, FLA. — Sucro said it has purchased the operating assets of Marigold, Inc., including sugar distribution warehouses in University Park, Ill., and Atlanta and a transfer station at the University Park location.

The new facilities are in key locations to provide ample storage space and direct access to rail and road transportation for quick turnaround times, Sucro said.

Products and services from the two locations will be provided under a newly formed entity, Sweet Life Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sucro that will focus on value-added services relating to organic and specialty sugars and the distribution of cane sugar products, the company said.

Marigold was established in 1976 to provide a distribution warehouse and transfer station (bulk rail to bulk truck) in the Chicago area and took over operations of a distribution and warehouse facility in Atlanta in 2018. The company has handled a variety of liquid and dry sweetener products, including organic. It was based in University Park.

Marigold met with financial issues a few months ago, and its assets were distributed in late November. United Sugars Corp. previously said that it had acquired Marigold’s liquid sugar facility in South Chicago.

Sucro previously announced that it was building a new sugar refinery at its Lackawanna, NY, facility on the site of the long-shuttered Bethlehem Steel plant.

“Sucro is rapidly growing its processing and distribution network of high-value cane and organic sugar products and services,” said Jonathan Taylor, chief executive officer of Sucro. “Together with the recently announced sugar refinery in Lackawanna, this purchase will better position Sucro to support its leading organic sugar business and other high-value cane sugar services for its customers.”

Sucro, previously Sucro Sourcing LLC, is a minority-owned company that was established in 2014 and is the largest importer of organic sugar in the United States. In addition to its US locations, Sucro also has operations in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America. Sucro said it was the first in North America to build a micro-sized sugar refinery, to refine imported organic sugar, to utilize bulk ocean vessels to ship organic sugar and to integrate two sugar operations on each side of the border.