Sensient Technologies has set up a 62,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Guangzhou, China, and a technical center and sales office in Shanghai. The Guangzhou site includes an office, a manufacturing plant, a fragrance building and laboratory comprising a flavor creation center, a pharmaceutical lab, a color research center and a quality control lab.
The company has also opened a facility in Alajuela, Costa Rica to serve as a base for its Central American and Caribbean operations. Staffed with product application teams, this facility includes an office, laboratories for beverage and dairy applications and savory flavors, quality control lab and a culinary center for flavorists; it will also develop flavors for local markets.
“China’s emerging middle class constitutes an important new market for our products, one that has already begun to contribute to Sensient’s growth and will gain in importance going forward,” said the company's chairman and CEO, Kenneth Manning, in a company press release.