Chris Nelson likes to say that he and his colleagues at Kemin Industries Inc. have a simple goal: They want to get one or more of the highly specialized molecules their company develops into your body by the end of each day.

As the 49-year-old Des Moines-based company continues to expand, it’s becoming more and more likely that Kemin’s nutrition and health products will find their way into more people’s bodies, not to mention their pets’.

Nelson, Kemin’s president and CEO, last month announced a five-year, $30 million expansion plan that will significantly increase the size of the company’s East Side campus – and its capacity to produce additional products. The privately owned company anticipates reaching nearly $400 million in annual revenues by the end of this year, more than double its sales in 2005.

New molecules

“We’ve just been very fortunate that we’ve continued to experience double-digit growth over the past few years,” Nelson said. “This (expansion) is just giving the tools to our people to continue the very fortunate growth we’ve been on.”

About 320 of Kemin’s more than 1,200 employees work in Des Moines, and within the next five years the company expects to hire nearly 100 additional employees locally. The majority of Kemin’s work force is outside the United States, at the company’s manufacturing facilities in Belgium, Brazil, China, India, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand.

Kemin’s researchers specialize in developing new molecules that are used in products for both animal and human health, such as animal feed products, nutritional supplements, pharmaceuticals and food preservatives. Among the company’s products are FloraGLO Lutein, an eye-health supplement, and NaturFORT, a rosemary and green tea combination used to preserve meats.

“I would say that in a broad category, our primary products remain antioxidants, both for outside the body and for the foods we put inside our bodies,” Nelson said. Antioxididants are substances that regulate chemical reactions that can be harmful to cells in the body and lead to disease.“The lead product there is lutein,” he said. “Outside the body are products for animal feed and human foods.”

One of Kemin’s most innovative recent developments is its work in encapsulation technology, which enables more precise targeting of nutrients, Nelson said.

“One we’re real excited about is actually for dairy cows,” he said. “Because of the ethanol industry in Iowa, we’re producing a lot of (feed) byproducts, but the problem is it’s low in amino acids.” Providing a lycein supplement for cows to maintain their health has been difficult, however, because a cow’s first stomach would destroy the supplement before it could reach the third stomach where it can be absorbed, he said.

“We in the last year have developed a series of two or three different technologies that can do this type of release,” Nelson said. “We see enormous opportunities for delivering nutrients within the body exactly where they need to be released.”

The Des Moines expansion project will primarily support the development of new products, Nelson said, but new products that are developed in Des Moines will be produced here first as well.

“The first factory is usually right by where it was developed,” he said. “Then if there is growth, and if freight costs dictate it, that’s when we build outside the country. The typical situation is that we may develop a customer in China or Europe. When the volume becomes such that we’re giving the freight company too much money, we build a factory there.”

A vision fulfilled

This will be the fifth significant headquarters expansion for Kemin, which currently occupies a research campus at 2100 Maury St. as well as leased office space in the East Village. In the phased expansion, Kemin will expand to the north by purchasing land now used by the city of Des Moines as a service center for its streets and maintenance divisions. The project will also bring all of Kemin’s Des Moines employees back together on one campus. Shortly after making the announcement, Kemin received a commitment for a $1 million forgivable loan from the state of Iowa as well as tax incentives.

The first phase of Kemin’s multiphase plan calls for construction of a new research facility next spring that will be used to extract an antioxidant ingredient from spearmint. And by this time next year, Kemin will break ground on the first of the new research and development buildings. The headquarters, which will be fronted by the new Southeast Connector, will be the final piece of the expansion in 2014.

“Kemin Industries really represents what we had all envisioned so many years ago when the City Council talked about the Agrimergent Park.” said Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie. “Kemin was certainly one of our main focal points as a model for the type of business that should be done in this area. I don’t think I ever dreamed that they would expand to the level that they have. As a worldwide company, they could have expanded anywhere, but they chose Des Moines.”

Kemin’s overseas research and manufacturing facilities serve client companies worldwide. And those facilities are expanding as well.

Next month, Nelson will travel to India, where the company will celebrate the opening of a new facility that will increase its research capacity there fourfold. The company also doubled the size of one of its factories in China this year, and in May 2011 will open a new research laboratory in Belgium. Additionally, Kemin plans to open another large factory in India next year as well as expand another production facility in China.

“All of these (overseas expansion) projects put together are probably equal to the (investment) in Des Moines,” Nelson said. “That somewhat reflects our business – today, 50 percent of our business is outside the United States.”

However, Nelson said he doesn’t expect overseas growth to outpace U.S. growth.

“The United States remains an incredible resource of innovation,” he said. “I anticipate our investments will remain greater within the United States, but we have to recognize there is global growth. It’s all about responding to customers, and you do that with local presence.”