The Great Western Sugar Company was incorporated in February 1901 by Charles Boettcher and others including John F. Campion, after having difficulty making their Colorado Sugar Manufacturing Company factory in Grand Junction, Colorado a success and selling it to locals. Colorado Sugar had an agreement to build a plant in Loveland, Colorado in 1899, with the Utah Sugar Company eyeing expansion into Colorado, and Colorado Sugar lacking resources to follow through quickly, they gave their Loveland agreement to Great Western.[1] Great Western brought in other high-level investors (Eben Smith, David Moffat, William Jackson Palmer, James Joseph Brown), created the Great Western Construction Company, then had the subsidiary build their first sugar beet processing plant, opening on November 21, 1901.[1][2] The first year was a failure, both for beet quality and problems at the factory, so they hired Mark Austin from Utah Sugar to improve their situation.[1]