Located in Grand Bourg on the island of Marie-Galante, the Grande-Anse sugar factory was initially part of the larger Marechal plantation and sugar factory that was split off and became a standalone estate. It is stated that the estate was named Poisson in honor of its one time owner Catherine Poisson. There is a Catherine Poisson who was the widow of Jean Jacques L’Hoste, however, genealogy records show that when her grandson Jean Jacques Claude L’Hoste Deselorge was born in 1749 she was absent from the island. In 1773 her grandson, Jean Jacques Claude L’Hoste Deselorge (1749-1777) married Marie Catherine Poisson Bontemps (1759-1792) the daughter of Louis Poisson Bontemps and Marie Rose Faussecave. After Jean Jacque’s death, in 1780 Mary Catherine married her relative Jean Claude Beillert (1751-1792) son of Jean Claude Belliert and Victoire Poisson. It is not clear at this time if the sugar factory was named for Catherine or Marie Catherine.

Usine de Grande-Anse was built in 1845 by La Compagnie des Antilles, long after Catherine Poisson’s ownership. In 1910 it was owned by the Retz family of Capesterre who after 1874 when they acquired Habitation Roussel-Trianon in Grand-Bourg, they closed it and its equipment transferred to Grande-Anse. Throughout the 19th century most of the sugar cane processed at the Grande-Anse sugar factory, was harvested by what used to be the Poisson plantation, a few kilometers away. In 1916, when Edouard Rameaux, part of a family that had been in Marie Galante since the late 1700s bought the Poisson estate by then the largest sugar factory on the island, he kept the name and added a distillery he named Père Labat-Domain Poisson SAS.

In 1932 a labor strike and a subsequent fire destroyed the sugar refinery which remained largely in ruins for decades. In 1963 no sugar mills were operating in Marie-Galante, cane was transported by barge from Marie-Galante to Pointe-à-Pitre, where it was processed at the Darboussier factory. In 1964, this situation led to the creation of the Société Sucrière de Marie-Galante (SOSUMAG) to acquire the Grand-Anse factory. At the time, SOSUMAG entrusted the technical management of the sugar mill to a private company called SESMAG under a renewable lease agreement, and the administrative management to a departmental public-private partnership: the Guadeloupe Development Company (SODEG). In 1981, when there was a need for increased capital and the agreement with SESMAG was cancelled, the Guadeloupean government owned approximately 86% of SOSUMAG’s share capital and majority on the board of directors.

On July 31, 1980 after suffering an annual operating loss of 5,000,000 F, SESMAG was on the verge of bankruptcy and ceased all activity. An amicable liquidation procedure was agreed that called for SOSUMAG to buy back its shares held by SESMAG, as a result of which SOSUMAG which until then had only been the owner of Grand-Anse, became the manager of its industrial unit and annexes. In 1994 SOSUMAG was liquidated due to severe financial issues and in 1995 the sugar factory was acquired by the Alsatian group Société Sucrière d’Erstein who created Sucrerie Rhumerie de Marie Galante providing the investment necessary to resume operations with the support from Europe, the French government and the region. Today, sugarcane planters in Marie-Galante participate in the ownership of Grand-Anse through the island’s Société Coopérative d’Intérêt Collectif Agricole des Producteurs Agricoles de la Guadeloupe (SICA) cooperative.