Michigan's first successful beet sugar factory was built in 1898 by the Michigan Sugar Company on Woodside Avenue in Essexville. A year later, the Bay City Sugar Company built a competing factory across the street. The two plants merged in 1903, and the original plant closed shortly thereafter. The merged company was named Bay City-Michigan Sugar Company and was then shortened to Michigan Sugar Company. It operated continuously until 1929 and closed permanently in 1933. Its early success sparked the construction of many other beet sugar plants, part of the drive that made beet sugar vital to Michigan's economy. The present Monitor Sugar factory is the only beet sugar plant still in operation in Bay County.