This compilation reel, most likely produced by the Imperial Holly Corporation, features local television news segments reporting on the company’s expansion in Hereford in September 1990. The facility introduced new ion exclusion technology to extract sugar and molasses from sugar beets. Represented television stations covering the development include KFDA-TV, KAMR-TV, and KVII-TV. Hereford Mayor Wes Fisher and Imperial Holly Corporation President Robert Hanna speak about the benefits of the expansion. The Imperial Sugar Company acquired the Holly Sugar Corporation in 1989, doubling its size. The newly formed Imperial Holly Corporation processed both cane and beet sugar. The company renamed itself the Imperial Sugar Company in 2001.
The city of Sugar Land now occupies the site that was once the Oakland Plantation. It was here that in 1843 Samuel May Williams installed a commercial sugar-grinding mill on his land, leading to a rapid shift from cotton to sugar cane as the area's dominant crop. In 1905 the area's sugar plantations were acquired by the Kempner family, who dubbed their company the Imperial Sugar Company. Though sugar has not been refined at the original plant since 2003, the company's headquarters remains in Sugar Land, making it the oldest extant business in Texas.
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