17 You’ll find sugar plants on every continent except Antarctica. And, in most of those sugar plants, you’ll find at least one piece of equipment that was manufactured by Western States. For the past century, our company’s reputation for innovative thinking and its unwavering commitment to help customers succeed have made Western States the first choice of most of the world’s sugar processors, as well as companies in many other industries. Before there was an entity called Western States, an inquisitive 16-year-old named Eugene Roberts took a job at a sugar beet factory in Lehi, Utah in 1894. Fascinated by the plant’s belt-driven centrifugal separators and frustrated by the need to scrape caked-on sugar from the centrifugals’ walls using wooden paddles and elbow grease, Roberts became convinced that there had to be a better way. He eventually enlisted the help of co-worker Angus H. Gibson, and they designed an automatic discharger. The Genesis and Evolution of Western States above: A 1921 issue of Centrifugal Service, a monthly publication by Western States. In its early beginnings, Western States was primarily a "catalog" sales company, leveraging the business on the Discharger, other inventions, and corresponding parts.