Animal health company is opening a massive facility in St. Joseph

A major addition to the Kansas City region’s animal health corridor is set to start business next week.

Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. plans to open a massive $28.7 million warehouse and packaging facility next Wednesday in St. Joseph. The 261,000-square-foot complex, about the size of four football fields, will have 150 employees when fully operational.

The facility will allow Boehringer to streamline the packaging, material handing and distribution of biological vaccines and pharmaceuticals that will be shipped to customers in more than 50 countries. The company’s products are used for the prevention and treatment of disease in the swine, cattle, equine and pet markets.

Construction on the distribution center began in 2012. Boehringer said the facility can be expanded by about 100,000 square feet for manufacturing operations.

Boehringer’s U.S. headquarters is in St. Joseph. It has additional operations in Ames, Fort Dodge and Sioux Center in Iowa. The company is a division of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Gmbh, based in Ingelheim, Germany.

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health has about 3,000 employees worldwide and generated net sales of $1.5 billion in 2013. It is part of the Boehringer Ingelheim group, which has 142 affiliates and more than 47,400 employees.

This story was originally published August 20, 2014 at 8:33 AM with the headline "Animal health company is opening a massive facility in St. Joseph."