Western States Enters Brazil Sugar Market

Fairfield, OH, February 25, 2016 (Newswire.com) - The Western States Machine Company, a leading manufacturer of centrifugals for the sugar industry, announced they have acquired a controlling share of BIG Tecnologia and Colmena, leading manufacturers supporting the Brazilian sugar industry.

BIG Tecnologia and Colmena, both Brazilian companies founded in 2003, are located in Piracicaba, São Paulo Brazil, providing service and support to the sugar and ethanol industries.

"BIG Tecnologia's significant engineering and production capability adds increased depth and a local market presence to Western States' suite of products. Due to our continuous growth globally and in South America, the opportunity arose to provide our clients with increased service and support."

Robert Sinnard, President & CEO of Western States Machine

Western States (www.WesternStates.com) custom designs and manufactures batch and continuous centrifugals for the global marketplace.  Established since 1917, Western States has been instrumental in developing and innovating superior centrifuges and corresponding technologies while keeping their global client base its first and foremost priority.

“BIG Tecnologia's significant engineering and production capability adds increased depth and a local market presence to Western States’ suite of products. Due to our continuous growth globally and in South America, the opportunity arose to provide our clients with increased service and support,” shares Robert Sinnard, President of Western States.

“This presents Western States with the unique opportunity to enter the Brazilian market with our world class products manufactured locally and supported by local engineering and customer support,” adds Rafael Ibañez, Manager of Business Development for Latin America. “We are excited to be able to offer our latest technology batch centrifuges to the large and important Brazilian sugar industry.”

The four partners of the Brazilian companies, Ricardo Funcasta Dias, Edivardo Ferezini Filho, Gilberto Fuzaro, and Ivan Ferraz Correa will continue as Directors and run the new partnership companies. “We are very excited about being a part of Western States. We see a great synergy between our companies and know that together we can expand our market presence and provide a full range of products and services to our customers,” shares Ricardo Funcasta Dias, Director.

About BIG Tecnologia and Colmena

Founded in 2003, BIG Tecnologia and Colmena operate from Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil servicing the sugar and ethanol industries with engineering, customer support, replacement parts, and equipment rebuild services.

About Western States

Founded in 1917, Western States is the only remaining United States-based sugar centrifuge/centrifugal manufacturer (machines utilized to separate liquids from solids). Brand names include Western States, Roberts Centrifugals, and TITAN. Additionally, Western States is a distributor for Riera Nadeu, S.A. located in Barcelona, Spain.

While Western States originated to develop and manufacture improvements for centrifugals in the sugar industry, expansion occurred in 1950 to include centrifuges for non-sugar industries including the separation of fine chemicals, agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Since its humble beginnings, Western States has grown to become a global supplier for both the Sugar and Chem/Pharma industries, with more than 6,000 centrifugals installed world-wide.

Western States is located at 625 Commerce Center Drive, Fairfield, Ohio USA and can be reached by telephone +1 513.863.4758; by email [email protected]; or via the website at www.westernstates.com.