In Minnesota, consumer demand for natural ingredients in cosmetics products has spurred growth for contract manufacturer Bell Labs.
The company, which manufactures organic health and beauty products for name-brand manufacturers, recently broke ground on its second plant, at Eagan, Minnesota, and announced that it would add 50 jobs. Just last year it consolidated two small plants in Minneapolis into a larger facility in Eagan. The 50 new hires come on top of the 100 jobs it added in the last twelve months.
“We are far from done with the work to expand Bell Labs,” said Mo Saremi, founder and chief executive. “We expect to employ up to 300 Minnesotans by the end of 2017 [and] add an additional 100,000 square feet to our Eagan campus.”
Saremi said Bell will post revenue of $50 million this year and approach $75 million in 2018. “Sun care is a very big part of our business and people want natural products that are not synthetic, active-ingredient chemicals,” he tells the Star Tribune. The company makes its ingredients from mineral- and plant-based materials.