President of BioKyowa's parent company visits Cape

Business Today

Dr. Yuzuru Matsuda, the new president of BioKyowa's parent company in Japan, traveled from Tokyo to meet with Cape Girar-deau business leaders Dec. 2, promising to strengthen the company and maintain a solid relationship with the community.

"Visiting Cape Girardeau has been on my priority list," said Matsuda, who took over as president of the Kyowa Hakko Group in June. "We established one of our major production facilities here 21 years ago and it's appropriate that I am here."

Kyowa Hakko is the parent company of the Cape Girardeau BioKyowa plant, which employs 161 people in its production of animal feed supplements. Kyowa Hakko is an industry leading global supplier to the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, with net sales of $3.3 billion.

The company, established in 1949, is headquartered in Tokyo.

The company was the first major Japanese manufacturer to locate in Missouri. BioKyowa opened its swine and poultry supplement plant here in 1982 in a $25 million facility with 60 workers.

Biokyowa currently has 161 employees, just a little more than two years after having to lay off 45 because of a poor Asian economy.