CP Kelco's San Diego site is the main production facility for new biopolymer product commercialization. The 28-acre facility, on the San Diego Bay, is located in the Barrio Logan section of the city of San Diego, California, immediately under the landmark Coronado Bridge. The site has a population of approximately 218 employees. The San Diego site began operation as an algin plant in 1943 and became, in 1961, the first full-scale facility in the world to commercially ferment and recover xanthan gum.

The site consists of the Specialty Biogum production area, a state-of-the-art Research Pilot Plant facility, a gas-fired Cogeneration operation, and numerous other manufacturing support and storage facilities. Major products processed at the facility include xanthan gum (a polysaccharide used in the food, pharmaceutical and industrial markets as a versatile thickener and stabilizer), and several other highly specialized biopolymers used to control the rheology of solutions under varying conditions of pH, temperature, and salt concentrations. In fact, San Diego-produced biogums can be found in thousands of household products including salad dressings, toothpaste, desserts, lotions, cleaners, and cosmetics.

Partnership with the local community:

With a gross payroll of approximately $15 million and local taxes of over $2 million annually, CP Kelco is important to the Barrio community and contributes to the economic strength of the region. CP Kelco San Diego contracts services and supplies worth $23 million from businesses in California, of which $14 million goes to businesses in San Diego county.

Rising to a height of 25 feet, and extending to a length of over several hundred feet, the Kelco Historical Community Mural greets all who pass the Harbor Drive gateway into Barrio Logan.

The work of local artists Salvadore and Gloria Torres, it was commissioned in 1993 by one of the oldest companies on the bayfront, the CP Kelco Company, to commemorate its 50^th anniversary at its 28-acre site within the Barrio Logan community.

We now partner with three local schools, Perkins Elementary, located just a few blocks from the San Diego Plant, Memorial Academy, and San Diego High School. For these Charter schools, the company promotes science education and development. We also partner with the Elementary Institute of Science to support hands-on science enrichment. It also donates science equipment, participates in career day events, and hosts plant tours.

In 1997, and in 2006, we helped the Logan Heights Family Health Center purchase a state-of-the-art mobile clinic in order to provide medical care to the senior and disabled residents of the area. This year, a CP Kelco donation helped fund dental care for school-age children in the community.

We are also helping to beautify the area around the plant. Over 70 shade trees were planted in the Harbor Drive median with CP Kelco providing the irrigation and maintenance of the trees and vegetation. The trees have established themselves and provide a beautiful compliment to the mural.

Growing together and supporting each other, as good neighbors do, is the future the CP Kelco Company sees for itself and the barrio. It is a commitment the people of CP Kelco have made.

"Earning Our Right to Operate in the Community" is the quote that CP Kelco and its employees stand by.

Site Facts

28 Acres, occupied since 1943
Approximately 12 miles from the CP Kelco Aero Drive Research Facility
Hourly Employees Represented by — IUOE 501