The WEDC Board of Directors has approved up to $15.5 million in performance-based tax credits for Kikkoman Foods’ planned $800 million expansion, Gov. Tony Evers announced.
That total project dollar figure covers expanding the Japanese company’s existing soy sauce brewing plant in Walworth and building a new 240,000-square-foot facility in Jefferson, according to yesterday’s release. These efforts are expected to create 83 new jobs over 12 years.
Evers in a statement yesterday highlighted the economic relationship between Wisconsin and Japan, noting the state has more than $700 million in exports to Japan each year. Kikkoman Corporation in 1973 opened Kikkoman Foods Inc. in Walworth, making the city home to one of the first production facilities built in the United States by a Japanese company.
“Whether it’s providing thousands of local jobs, bolstering our economy, or providing the state and world with phenomenal soy sauce, Kikkoman is doing good work across Wisconsin and the country, and I am grateful for their continued partnership and expansion in Wisconsin,” Evers said.
The company in recent years has been searching around the country for where to establish a third manufacturing facility, after a second site was opened in California in 1998. It landed on a 100-acre site in Jefferson in southern Wisconsin, where a new facility will produce soy sauce and other products including teriyaki sauce, according to the release.
A groundbreaking on the site is slated for June, and the company plans to start shipments in fall of 2026.
Yuzaburo Mogi, honorary CEO and chairman of the board of Kikkoman Corp., says the company values Walworth for its “great market access, outstanding workforce, central location for raw materials, pure water, and the open-hearted spirit of partnership” among the locals.
“We chose Jefferson for those same reasons, and we look forward to expanding our footprint in Wisconsin and establishing a supply chain with increased stability in North America, Kikkoman’s largest overseas market,” he said in a statement.
See more in the release.
