FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 5, 2018 Contact: Rob Clark, Michigan Sugar Company, 989-686-0161

VP of Sales and Marketing Jerry Coleman worked 43 years in the sugar industry, including 22 years at Michigan Sugar Company

BAY CITY – Jerry Coleman, longtime Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Michigan Sugar Company, retired March 29, 2018, after 22 years with the company and 43 years in the sugar industry.

“Jerry is one of the most respected marketers in our industry and his passion for his craft is unmatched,” said Mark Flegenheimer, President and CEO of Michigan Sugar Company. “The grower-owners of Michigan Sugar Company and his fellow employees will miss the always upbeat, positive attitude he brought to work every day. We wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement.”

Coleman came to Michigan in 1995 as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Monitor Sugar Company, which merged with Michigan Sugar Company in 2004.

The Lumberton, North Carolina, native began his career in 1975 as a regional sales manager for Domino Sugar. In 1983, he joined American Crystal Sugar, which eventually merged its marketing efforts with two other cooperatives to form United Sugars, where Coleman was later named Vice President of National Account Sales.

Stepping into the role of Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Michigan Sugar Company is Pedro Figueroa, who joined the company in January and has been working alongside Coleman for the past three months. Figueroa has 25 years of experience in the sugar industry, including most recently as Divisional Head, USA White Sugar for ED&F Man in Miami. Figueroa earned his bachelor’s degree from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Coleman, a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Pembroke and a U.S. Army veteran who served one tour in Vietnam, is planning a return to the Carolinas to spend time with his family.

“I’ll miss the employees … the growers … the board … and the customers,” said Coleman. “The sugar industry and Michigan Sugar have been great to me. If I could do it all over again, I’d do it the same way.”

With its corporate office in Bay City, Michigan Sugar Company is a cooperative owned by approximately 1,000 growers who annually plant and harvest about 160,000 acres of sugarbeets. The company processes those beets at factories in Bay City, Caro, Croswell and Sebewaing, producing approximately 1.2 billion pounds of sugar each year that it sells under the Pioneer and Big Chief brands.