Tasker, Young & Co.'s refinerey was built in 1829 on the east fall of the Shaws Water Company, but it was short lived and was wound up in 1837 and a few years later ceased working altogether. but the property was was eventually purchase by John Walker & Co. before being rented in 1844 by Pattens & Co.

It was then acquired in 1838 by MacLeish, Kayser & Co. The Princes Street works began in 1826 under the ownership of Alex. opened a refinery in Clarence Street, Glebe, in 1812, which, like so many others, was destroyed by fire in 1847. It was destroyed by fire in 1846, and was not re-built. The refinery of James Fairrie & Co., at Cartsdyke Bridge, was built in 1809. Robert Macfie & Sons built the third refinery in Greenock about 1802, in Bogle Street, and carried on the business until 1854, when they moved to their operations to Liverpool and the site of their Greenock refinery eventually became the property of the Caledonian Railway Company. Currie died in 1886 the building ceased to be a sugar house and was converted into a working-men's lodging-house. There were many changes in the ownership of the property and the last firm was Messrs. As was the fate of so many sugar houses It burned down in 1793 and once again in 1795. The second refinery was built at the south end of Sugarhouse Lane in 1788 by a syndicate of prominent local citizens. The sugar house evetually burned down in 1882 and was replaced by The Brewers' Sugar Company, which greatly enlarged the works. The first large refinery was erected in 1765 at the foot Sugarhouse Lane with Glasgow and Greenock merchant backers, with Mark Kuhl as the 'practical manager'. The trade continued, through consolidations and takeovers, until it the last cargo of sugar was delivered to Tate & Lyle's Westburn refinery in June 1997, ending a connection of over 250 years. The refining trade made several dynastic business fortunes and these families came to have an important role in the business and politics of nineteenth century Greenock. Colonial connections, initially with the slave colonies in the West Indies, ensured a supply of the raw material for processing and later imperial expansion led to the Greenock sugar trade pursuing business in almost all parts of the world.

The refining of sugar came to be associated with Greenock for over two hundred years.

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