Published: May 08, 2008 05:54 pm            

ChemGen announces plan to start up long-idle Terre Haute plant

Company will purchase former Alpharma fermentation facility, bring up to 20 jobs

TERRE HAUTE — A manufacturing plant that has remained idle for many years will come to life with its acquisition by a Maryland-based biotechnology company.

ChemGen Corp. announced Thursday its purchase of the former Alpharma fermentation facility in Terre Haute. The plant is at 1445 S. First St.

The company, which produces enzymes for poultry, swine and other animal feed, is now retrofitting the plant and hopes to have it operating by the end of the year, said Bernie Treidl, ChemGen president.

He anticipates hiring 15 to 20 employees for engineering, production and administrative jobs by the end of the year, with the potential for an additional 10 at some point in the future.

“It’s a little difficult for us say exactly how many we’ll employ. The plant is quite automated,” Treidl said. The average annual salary for the new jobs will exceed $50,000 per year.

“We are very happy to be in Terre Haute,” he said. The community has a rich history in industrial fermentation and pharmaceutical industries.

ChemGen already has hired its first employee and has several other candidates it’s considering, Treidl said.

The company makes a natural type of feed additive (enzyme) that helps chickens, turkeys and swine digest their food more efficiently, he said.

With the escalating costs of corn, wheat and soy — used to make animal feed — ChemGen’s feed additives “allows a farmer to save money on feed costs at a time when prices are skyrocketing,” Treidl said. Farmers don’t have to feed the animals as much and the animals grow a little faster.

The company’s best-known product, Hemicell feed enzyme, is patent-protected and registered and sold worldwide for use in poultry, swine and other animal feed. Hemicell will be produced at the Terre Haute plant.

The company sells its products internationally and domestically, Treidl said. “We have been looking for a domestic location to manufacture our products.”

The Terre Haute plant “is a good fit with what we wanted to do and our long-term objectives,” Treidl said.

“We have a number of new products in the pipeline and the Terre Haute plant is in a really good location for making commercial development quantities of those materials,” he said.

The plant will require a significant investment before ChemGen can start production, he said, declining to give a dollar figure.

Still, the facility has an amazing amount of equipment and it is well-maintained, Treidl said.

Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said ChemGen’s decision to locate in an existing facility here “is a double victory for the city of Terre Haute.”

The company not only will bring new, good-paying jobs to the community, “This project will also place the former Alpharma facility back into productive use. Had ChemGen not purchased this facility, it is likely the facility would have soon been dismantled and sold off on a piecemeal basis,” Bennett said.

Steve Witt, president of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp., has been working with ChemGen for more than a year. “We are very pleased to have ChemGen purchase this facility. It will be a nice addition to our local manufacturing community,” Witt said.

The facility initially was built in 1990 by Pitman-Moore to produce a genetically engineered pig growth hormone, which never received approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

It later was bought by Alpharma, which also hoped to produce a pig growth hormone there; the company never put the South First Street facility into production.

Witt said economic development officials have been marketing the facility for years. Acquisition by ChemGen “has been a long time coming,” he said.

The Gaithersburg, Md., company has begun retrofitting the 67,000-square-foot facility.

The new ChemGen facility already has its first employee, LeRoy Schatz, 54, who has been working at the facility under different owners since it was built in 1990. He is serving as maintenance manager at the Terre Haute facility.

“I’m with ChemGen now. I was the No. 1 draft pick last week,” he said. “I’m really excited.”

It showed as he enthusiastically gave a tour of the fermentation facility that he’s worked with for 18 years. “It’s like one of my kids,” he said.

Even as it’s sat idle, he’s visited almost daily to make sure the plant is in good operating order.

Witt praised the job Schatz has done through the years to maintain the facility. He’s been the No. 1 cheerleader for the plant, Witt said.

Both Pitman-Moore and Alpharma have kept the building in good condition, “which makes all the difference in the world to prospective buyers,” Witt said.

Companies from all across the globe have looked at the plant, Witt said.

Founded in 1985, ChemGen is a privately held biotechnology company specializing in developing products through the use of microbial fermentation technology.

More information about ChemGen can be found at the company’s Web site: www.chemgen.com.

Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

        

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