The Great Western Sugar Company was founded in the early 20th century by Charles Boettcher and partners, pioneering the sugar beet industry in northern Colorado. The first sugar mill was built in Loveland in 1901, and the company expanded throughout northern Colorado. In 2002, Western Sugar Cooperative finalized the purchase of Western Sugar.  Western Sugar Cooperative now has over 800 grower/owners, plants over 100,000 acres of sugar beets and produces roughly 10 million hundred weights of locally grown sugar per year.