Apiscent plant sold to Kingchem Life Sciences

Buyer plans to keep workers on the job

The assets of Apiscent Labs LLC, a financially troubled St. Francis maker of flavors, fragrances and pharmaceutical chemicals, have been purchased by a firm that plans to continue and expand the operations.

Kingchem Life Sciences LLC, which is based in both the U.S. and China, bought substantially all of Apiscent’s assets and will operate from Apiscent’s plant at 4170 S. Nevada Ave., Patrick McComis, Apiscent’s president, said Monday.

He said Kingchem will hire all 20 Apiscent employees, except for himself.

Kingchem bought Apiscent out of receivership, a proceeding similar to bankruptcy.

Kingchem submitted the high bid, $1.2 million, in an auction two weeks ago, court-appointed receiver Seth Dizard said.

Apiscent’s chief lender, CIBM Bank of Elm Grove, pushed the chemical manufacturing company into receivership in June, saying it had defaulted on its debt and was losing money. Apiscent has remained in business during the receivership.

It was the second round of financial trouble for the St. Francis chemicalmanufacturing plant.

Apiscent itself was formed by a group that bought the previous tenant, Fontarome Chemical Inc., out of receivership in 2014.

Kingchem, of Allendale, New Jersey, has its main production plant and its research-and-development facility in China, McComis said.

He said the company wants production operations in the U.S. and is “looking to make some significant investments into the facility here.”

Apiscent employed 34 people when it entered receivership in June. McComis said he believes employment will “be back up in that 30 to 40 range” relatively quickly.