Kind & Knox Gelatine announced in June it changed its name to Gelita USA Inc. Sioux City.
Company officials said the name change stemmed from a series of acquisitions for Gelita and the need for name continuity globally.
"Our business has grown and evolved not only domestically but globally and we need one name which is easily and quickly recognized by our customers," Chuck Markham, area president of Gelita North America, said. "In addition, we want to firmly establish Gelita brand gelatines and collagen hydrolysates with our key business constituents. This is a natural and logical step in our evolution as a multinational business."
In addition, it was announced Sioux City would serve as corporate headquarters for the North American region of Gelita. Representing Gelita North America are Gelita USA Inc. Sioux City, Gelita USA Inc. Chicago (Calumet City, Ill.) and Gelita Mexico. Other world regions of Gelita include Gelita Europe, Gelita South America and Gelita Asia Pacific Africa.
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Gelita USA Inc. Sioux City provides gelatine products to a host of industrial concerns and uses including edible, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical/health, photographic and technical applications. Gelita USA Inc. Sioux City is the world's largest single-site gelatine manufacturing operation, which began operations in Siouxland about 34 years ago.
Today Gelita USA Inc. Sioux City employs about 280 people, but it laid off 15 employees in February in the wake of declining exports blamed on mad cow disease.
The layoffs, occurring in the two plants that make gelatine from cattle bones, stemmed from a shift in global demand resulting from import restrictions of U.S. gelatine following the discovery of the first domestic case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.
Markham expressed optimism the downturn will be short lived.
"Politics and emotion are driving this sales downturn, rather than fact and science," Markham said in a statement. "Gelatine is an absolutely safe and healthy food ingredient - an opinion supported and echoed by the FDA and world scientific authorities. We are therefore hopeful that several of our international markets that we serve will reopen."
Several countries across the globe halted imports of bovine gelatine exports - as well as beef itself - after a single cow in Washington state tested positive for BSE in December.
Gelita USA Inc. Sioux City roots go back to The Knox Gelatine Co. which was founded in 1890 in Johnstown, N.Y., by Charles B. Knox to provide an easier way to make gelatine. At the time, people spent hours making gelatine from soup bones. Charles Knox introduced a convenient form of gelatine - granulated for easy mixing.
In 1972, the T.J. Lipton Co. bought the Kind & Knox business from the Knox family. Six years later, a bone gelatine plant was constructed in Sioux City. The firm continued its expansion in Sioux City with the addition of research and development in 1983, a processing addition in 1988, and a rendering addition in 1991.
In 1992, DGF Stoess AG purchased Kind & Knox Gelatine Inc. from the T.J. Lipton Co. which served as a catalyst for the 1993 expansion of the firm's Quality Control Labs and the corporate offices in Sioux City.
In November of 1995, Kind & Knox announced a major expansion of the firm's Port Neal facility. The expansion doubled the size of the Bone Gelatine Plant. The $50 million expansion project also created 50 new jobs. Kind & Knox also became ISO 9001 certified, an international benchmark for quality.
