Western Sugar to Cut 92 Jobs at Wyoming Plant

After nearly a century in operation, a sugar beet processing plant in Torrington, WY is slated to close this coming January, impacting dozens of workers at the site, the facility’s owner, Western Sugar Cooperative, announced in a message sent to community leaders this week.

A letter sent to officials in Torrington said the company plans to shutter the Main street facility and lay off 92 workers starting on Jan. 10 due to “current and projected business plans and needs,” the Scottsbluff Star-Herald reported. 

The company first announced plans to halt production at the Torrington plant in 2016, but noted that powdered sugar packaging and shipping operations would continue at the site, coverage by local television news station KNEP said. 

Western Sugar said the current sugar beet processing campaign at Torrington will be the facility’s last. The site reportedly opened in the 1920's. 

“We will still store sugar there from other sides and other locations. We will bring it in there and store it, pack it, and ship sugar out of there,” the firm’s president and chief executive officer, Rodney Perry, said when interviewed by the Torrington Telegram this week. “We will maintain the operation and some of the people.”

Perry told the Telegram that recent upgrades of technology at its manufacturing plants in Scottsbluff, NE and Fort Morgan, CO contributed to the company’s decision to close the facility in Torrington. 

Western Sugar, based in Denver, CO, currently operates manufacturing facilities in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming. 

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