Bioverse Inc. coming to Worthington

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WORTHINGTON — A small, southwest Minnesota science-based manufacturing company recognized for producing one of the Top 10 innovations for the swine industry at this summer’s National Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, is relocating to Worthington.

Bioverse Inc. will be the first tenant in the city-owned Biotechnology Advancement Center in Worthington’s Bio-science Park. A lease agreement with the city was approved earlier this week, setting in motion plans to retrofit the building to meet the company’s needs. Bioverse plans to be operating in the facility by Nov. 1.

The company, currently based in Pipestone, has nearly a dozen employees, some of which will make the transition to Worthington. Other positions, according to Bioverse Chief Technology Officer and longtime Worthington resident Connie Schmidt, will be added in the near future. The top priority, however, will be the selection of a new CEO-president for Bioverse. That process has already begun.

Founded in 1995, Bioverse pegged itself as a research and development company. It introduced its first line of commercial products in 1999 — environmentally-based products that consume excess nutrients in everything from backyard ponds and golf course water hazards to small lakes. It’s AquaSpherePRO and pond water cleaner dispenser are patented and work as “on-site bacteria factories by incubating, growing and dispensing beneficial bacteria for up to 30 days,” according to the company website, www.bioverse.com.

The company was purchased by a group of four long-time investors, including Schmidt, in 2008.

Suzanne Wayne, Bioverse president, said Bioverse has grown from a water treatment company to a successful business marketing its products throughout the U.S.

A year ago, the company began treating agricultural waste and launched a second website, www.bioverseag.com, detailing a product line that includes everything from cleaning stock tanks to reducing sludge build-up, flies and odor, and preventing crusting in manure pits and waste systems for both the swine and dairy industries.

“We have been increasing in sales in the last four years,” Wayne said. “We’re growing and changing as time has gone on.”

Bioverse will rent bays 2 and 3 in the Biotechnology Advancement Center (BAC) and has the option to rent bay 1 on a month-to-month lease if needed. The two-bay lease is for three years, with the option of extending the lease for one additional year. The majority of the space will be used to convert raw material into product, as well as an office area.

The common areas of the BAC, including conference rooms, will allow Bioverse to conduct sales trainings for its staff situated across the country. They also intend to use the lab space.

“The one thing we value at Bioverse is we do a lot of studies,” Wayne said. “We are currently outsourcing that to a facility in Brookings, S.D., and we’re now hoping to bring that in-house. It’s very appealing to have that lab close to us so we can conduct this research.”

While the incubator bays are a bit smaller in square footage than Bioverse’s present location in Pipestone, Worthington Regional Economic Development Corp. Manager Glenn Thuringer said the move gets the company into a community with other bioscience-focused businesses.

“They have an option on land straight east of the BAC,” Thuringer added. “They wanted a lot or lots that they could build a minimum of a 20,000-square-foot building.”

By comparison, the three bays in the BAC total 15,000 square feet, he said.

“That bioscience building is amazing,” Wayne said. “The community, the city and Glenn really took an interest in Bioverse and making it a workable situation for everyone involved. We want to be close to all of the sciences and in a growing community.”

“Being around other bioscience companies was really a big factor, and they felt that would give them the ability to hire the higher- end people they were struggling to recruit to their location,” Thuringer said.

Bringing Bioverse to Worthington is an important accomplishment for both the WREDC and the city of Worthington. The $5.3 million facility was built thanks to $4.7 million in grants, money that was given in anticipation the city would pass start-up savings on to young companies to help spur growth and create jobs in southwest Minnesota, said Thuringer.

“The facility was completed six months ago, so having a tenant this quickly really shows the need and why the entities gave us the money,” he added.

While Bioverse is getting a good deal on the lease, Thuringer said it’s better than having the building sit idle.

“We’re really wanting to be able to take their investment, their need for education and training, as leverage to get the 1,972 square feet of lab space finished off,” he said. “That’s a goal we have in the next year.”

The lab is intended not only as a working lab for Bioverse, but as an educational tool for the middle and high school science labs and Minnesota West Community & Technical College curriculum.

“The benefit to the company, if they work with the educational lab, they now have a skillset for the students — their future workforce,” Thuringer said.

That is exciting for company executives like Schmidt.

“It’s a perfect fit for a relationship between our company and a working, teaching laboratory and the owners were willing to participate in that,” he said. “Our owners wanted to participate with the business model that was set up for the industrial park.

“The ability to tie into the incubator out here during this stage of our business … allows us to grow, but also to connect with the other industries in town and to connect with the purpose of the BAC, technology-wise, to use the center to tie into our outside sales force,” he added. “The technology that’s going to go in there — the satellite hookups, the ability to have small rooms and a training area, that was really important to us.”

Schmidt sees future growth of the company coming from its existing product lines through expanding opportunities and developing new branding for its products.

Worthington City Administrator Craig Clark said bringing Bioverse to the community will help grow the Bioscience Park.

“We’re very excited to see them, and I think they will fit nicely with the biosciences,” Clark said. “It’s been a long process, in a lot of respects it’s been a 10-year process. This is a key component.”

“The city did an exceptionally good job of negotiating the lease on behalf of the BAC,” Thuringer said.

Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be reached at 376-7330.

Tags: bioverse inc., news, worthington