Message From The President

The new year marks the 65th Anniversary of Westway Trading Corporation. We would like to express our gratitude to our many customers, suppliers, and service companies that have worked with Westway over these many years. The following is a brief history of Westway and our outlook for the future.

Industrial Molasses Corporation, predecessor to Westway, was founded in 1940 and established itself as a distributor of domestic beet molasses to the fermentation industries located in the Northeast. The acquisition of Manard Molasses Company, located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1946, enabled the company to greatly expand its territory and it became a major distributor of Louisiana cane molasses to the animal feed industry. Also in 1946, the Company established its first deep-water terminal in Albany, New York. This permitted the direct importation of foreign cane molasses.

The 1950's and 1960's were periods of rapid expansion for the Company. The construction of additional deep-water import facilities enabled Westway to secure cane molasses from many foreign producing areas. Also, Westway established numerous bulk liquid terminals on the inland rivers, the Great Lakes, and important rail locations, which greatly developed and expanded its distribution network.

The 1970's and 1980's proved to be a period of limited growth for the molasses industry. Westway diversified its terminal operations to include the storage and handling of many other bulk liquid commodities. We also made our initial entry into value added feed products.

The 1990's proved to be a dynamic decade for the Company. Substantial diversification and expansion into terminaling and feed manufacturing was already in progress when a new investor, ED & F Man, facilitated an even more aggressive expansion and investment program. Several feedplant were constructed and small feed companies were acquired. Our terminaling growth increased significantly, highlighted by the acquisition and further expansion of the San Pedro, California, facility.

In 1997 a unique opportunity was presented when Cargill, Inc. decided to sell to sell their molasses trading and distribution business along with their liquid feed manufacturing and sales network. This acquisition basically doubled the size of the Company and created the largest molasses and liquid feed business in the Americas.

Since the Millennium, Westway has also enjoyed further growth which included the acquisition of Tate & Lyle’s North American molasses, feed and storage business and entries into trading other commodities such as fish oil, tallow, yellow grease and other oil products.

The large scope of the individual business activities led to a separation of activities into three separate business units:

Westway Trading Corporation - Molasses and other liquid products trading & distribution

Westway Feed Products - Manufacturing & marketing of animal feed products

Westway Terminal Company, Inc. - Bulk liquid storage

These businesses draw on common synergies and operate under the umbrella of Westway Holdings Corporation.  Westway is a wholly owned subsidiary of ED & F Holdings, Inc., a large privately owned international trader, distributor, and processor of commodities with particular focus on sugar, cocoa, coffee, molasses and alcohol.

We are committed to maintaining and expanding existing business and, as always, look for new possibilities. We appreciate your support and look forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,
A. Whitfield Huguley, IV

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