About sixty years ago Ugar Khurd was a small hamlet in the erstwhile princely state of Sangli.

It was however blessed with two great advantages; On its south flowed the perennial river Krishna and on the north, was situated the railway station of Ugar Khurd on the meter gauge line between Miraj and Bangalore, now changed to broad gauge.

Conditions were ideal for somebody to harness the two advantages and exploit the fertility of the loamy soil. An abortive attempt was made in late thirties to start a sugar industry.
After that, the then ruler of Sangli invited the late Dr.S.R.Shirgaokar - who had previous experience of setting up a sugar factory at Kolhapur, to embark on the unexplored venture which he did with great dexterity and the slumbering village of Ugar Khurd was transformed into a humming industrial township in a few years. Today, Ugar is equivalent to a mini city with a decent sized population and having agriculture concentrated employment surrounding the sugar manufacturing focussed township.

Dr.S.R. Shirgaokar deputed his competent nephew Shri.V.S.Shirgaokar to purchase a sugar plant from Moholi Sugar Factory in Sitapur District in Bihar and install it at Ugar Khurd. The Ugar Sugar Works hence found a very competent navigator in one of its visionaries- Late Shri V.S.Shirgaokar. The 500 TCD plant was purchased, installed and the first crushing season was started on the 21st of April, 1942.

After a succesful innings, the late V.S Shirgaokar then passed on the reins of the group to his younger brother- Shri Suresh Shirgaokar, popularly known as ‘Babu Kaka’. Babu Kaka took the organization further ahead and it was under his able leadership that the crushing capacity of the company underwent further expansion(10,000 TCD).
Presently, the crushing capacity of the organization is 18,000 TCD.(Ugar & Unit-Jewargi).

Sooner than later, the company diversified its activities and started its own distillery in the year 1962-63 and then added the liquor section in the year 1967-68. The company is producing high quality premium brands like Old Castle Whisky, Gokak Falls Whisky, US Rum, Doctors Brandy, Gagarin Vodka and the company's brands are well accepted by the market.

The company has setup a new distillery plant for producing 45,000 litres rectified spirit including 10,000 litres ENA per day during the year 1994-95 and this plant is running very successfully thereafter. This is in addition to the existing 30,000 litres per day old distillery plant.

Thereafter, the company further diversified and set up a first-in-its-kind-in India Co-Generation Power Plant of 44 MW. This was based on the principle of bagasse based renewable sources of energy used as fuel. Out of which 28 MW are being exported to the grid and the rest of the 16 MW are used for captive consumption.