Kemin Industries
Kemin Industries supplies specialty ingredients for human and animal health and nutrition, pet food, aquaculture, nutraceutical, food technologies, crop technologies and textile industries. Established in 1961, Kemin is a privately held, family-owned-and-operated company with more than 2,800 global employees and operations in 90 countries, including manufacturing facilities in Belgium, Brazil, China, India, Italy, Russia, San Marino, Singapore, South Africa and the United States. Company History. Kemin Industries was founded in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A. by RW Nelson and Mary Nelson. When the Nelsons started their business, they had five children under the age of seven  and USD$10,000 in a savings account. The company operated with two product lines, a manufacturing plant in an old wool barn, and Mary keeping the books at the family home. During the 1980s, led by Christopher E. Nelson, Ph.D., RW and Mary Nelson’s oldest son and the current President and CEO of Kemin, scientists were challenged to study molecules and understand their modes of action inside living organisms. This new approach to research and development spurred the company’s expansion into new markets. Kemin’s ingredients expanded into animal health, nutraceuticals, pet food, food technologies, crop technologies, textiles, aquaculture  and animal vaccines. In 1995, Kemin innovated lutein, a carotenoid molecule the company had been selling into the animal feed industry for years, for human use. This led to the establishment of Kemin’s first business unit, Human Nutrition and Health. Kemin adopted the business unit-focused model for other expansion beyond animal nutrition and health into pet food and rendering technologies, food technologies, human nutrition and health and crop technologies and more. Kemin global expansion highlights include: Kemin remains headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A. with sales, research and manufacturing facilities. In 2017, Kemin opened a USD$30 million worldwide  headquarters building where the wool barn in which the company manufactured its first products once sat.