WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. — American Sugar Refining, Inc. (ASR), part of the ASR Group International, Inc., on June 20 said it planned to close its Domino Sugar Refinery in Yonkers, NY, by the end of 2025 as part of a larger effort to strengthen its ability to serve its customers while operating more efficiently and sustainably.

“ASR’s strategically positioned network of operations is one of our core strengths, and staying ahead of evolving customer demands is essential to maintaining our competitive advantage,” said Doug Romain, senior vice president and chief operating officer at ASR. “Our multi-year strategy includes major investments in acquisitions, new facility construction, expansions and modernization of existing assets, as well as capital and process improvement projects that are making our operations and supply chain network even stronger.”

In the United States, the ASR strategy includes complementing its large-scale refineries with more flexible production facilities that are strategically located to best serve its customers and deliver a diverse portfolio of sweetener products when needed by customers.

As part of its strategy and investments in its northeast facilities, ASR said it will be closing its Yonkers refinery at the end of 2025. ASR is transitioning its Chalmette Refinery in Louisiana and its Baltimore Refinery in Maryland into continuous operations to gain increased efficiency and improve sustainability.

“Throughout our history, we have made considerable investments and operational changes to meet our customers’ sweetening needs,” said Rob Sproull, senior vice president of sales, marketing and new product development. “These recent changes are simply an extension of our continuous improvement journey to provide exceptional customer value and service. We will continue to operate large cane sugar refineries across the US with the capacity to meet our customers’ cane sugar requirements. And, now, we’re further complementing the capabilities of our refineries with smaller, more flexible operations to effectively service our customers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic geographies.”

To support its strategy, ASR acquired the Rochester, NY, based sweetener company, ingredientsPLUS in 2024, with production facilities in Lakeville, NY, and Landis, Pa., to service the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The company is investing in the construction of a new bulk transfer and liquid melt station in the Northeast with access to rail and major transportation routes, which is planned to begin operations in 2026. ASR also is investing in an expansion to double the size of its Buffalo plant (acquired in 2018, a processor and packager of granulated, brown and powdered sugar).

ASR Group is owned by Florida Crystals Corp., a major sugar cane grower in the state, farming more than 190,000 acres. Florida Crystals’ operations include two sugar mills, a sugar cane refinery in South Bay, Fla., a packaging and distribution center and a rice mill. Florida Crystals is the only producer of certified organic sugar grown and milled in the United States and is the largest regenerative organic certified farmer in the United States. Florida Crystals was founded by the Fanjul family in Florida in 1960 as a sugar cane farming and milling company, with the Fanjul’s history dating back to sugar cane in Cuba since 1850.  

Florida Crystals acquired the Yonkers refinery in 1998. American Sugar Refining, Inc. was formed in 2001 with the purchase of three cane sugar refineries and the Domino brand. ASR Group is the world’s largest refiner and marketer of cane sugar with annual capacity of 6 million tonnes (about 6,613,860 short tons). It currently operates sugar refineries in Crocket, Calif.; Toronto (Redpath); Mexico (Ingenio San Nicolás Sugar Mill and Refinery in Veracruz); in addition to Baltimore, Yonkers and Chalmette. It also owns and operates sugar refineries in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Italy (with a joint venture partner in the latter). Its portfolio includes Domino, C&H, Florida Crystals, Redpath (Canada), Tate & Lyle (UK and Europe), Lyle’s (UK), Sidul (Portugal) and Whitworths Sugar (UK).