A little after 7 p.m. on the evening of February 7, 2008 a series of explosions ripped through the Imperial Sugar Port Wentworth refinery –killing 14 employees and severely injuring numerous others. The tragic events of that evening set in motion two years of corporate turmoil, which came close to destroying Imperial Sugar.
Thirteen months after the plant explosion, if you were a journalist, industry analyst, investor or just curious and running a Google search on Imperial Sugar, it was not a pretty picture – media stories about a company in crisis had stalled on the dominant first pages of all search engines.
In May of 2009, the team of Newsroom Ink was called upon to develop a one-of-a-kind, content-rich, dynamic online newsroom staffed by journalists that would address the issue of the negative online news stories, and connect with both internal and external audiences.
Fergus Faucheux Daily Crossed Mississippi in Rowboat to Work at Imperial Plant
Standing on the bank of the Mississippi at Gramercy, Louisiana, one can only imagine how difficult it would be to row a small, flat-bottomed skiff across the river. Yet Fergus Faucheux rowed across that river every workday for nearly 45 years.
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Imperial Sugar’s Darrell Gerdes Delivers Products Customers Want
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” This is what Imperial Sugar’s Product Development Manager Darrell Gerdes and his team do every day.
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Flu Shots Don’t Miss a Beat at Imperial’s Gramercy Refinery
When the whistle blows for shift change at Imperial Sugar’s Gramercy refinery, employees usually hand off their responsibilities to their co-workers and go their merry way. But recently, they briefly changed their routine and stopped by the refinery’s visitor center to take advantage of the company’s free flu shot program.
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Eliminating the “Overfill” from Each Bag of Imperial Sugar
Packaging Team Manager William McGhee receives a “statement of yield” every month, which tells him how much sugar the Port Wentworth refinery has produced and how much it should have produced – based on the raw sugar the refinery started with.
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Food Processors Learn about Combustible Dust at Imperial’s Port Wentworth Facility
Representatives of major food companies and safety executives gathered at Imperial Sugar Company’s sugar refinery at Port Wentworth, Ga. They came to discuss the importance of maintaining a safe work environment and the potential hazards of uncontrolled sugar dust and other dust in food processing.
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Dublin Dr. Pepper Celebrates a Long, Sweet Tradition of Imperial Sugar
Imperial Sugar Company helped long-time customer Dublin, Texas Dr Pepper Bottling Company cap off a week-long celebration of its 119th anniversary. Dublin Dr Pepper is the first Dr Pepper bottling plant and the longest-running, soft drink bottler in the world.