At IPPE 2025, Feed Strategy's Jackie Roembke interviewed Alan Lee, vice president of domestic business at BioZyme Inc., about the company's manufacturing capabilities, recent AFIA Feed Facility of the Year award, and commitment to quality across its family of brands and toll manufacturing operations.
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH ALAN LEE, VICE PRESIDENT OF DOMESTIC BUSINESS, BIOZYME INC.
Jackie Roembke, editor-in-chief of WATT's feed brands and Feed Strategy: Hi everyone. Welcome to Feed Strategy Chat. I'm your host, Jackie Roembke, editor-in-chief of WATT's feed brands. This edition of Feed Strategy Chat is coming to you from IPPE 2025 and is brought to you by BioZyme Inc.
BioZyme has served the agriculture industry for more than 70 years as an innovator and global leader in fermentation and animal health. For more information, visit biozymeinc.com.
Today we're joined by Alan Lee, BioZyme's vice president of domestic business. He's here to tell us a little bit more about the company and some of the exciting things that they're displaying here at the show. Hi Alan, how's booth traffic?
Alan Lee, vice president of domestic business, BioZyme Inc.: Traffic has been really good. The show's been great so far. Just excited to be here — one of our favorite events every year. So yeah, it's been really good.
Roembke: Excellent. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit more about the company?
Lee: Yeah, so the roots of BioZyme go back to 1951, when a visionary man named Larry Ehlert started it as a feed facility across the street from the booming St. Joseph, Mo., stockyards. A lot has changed about BioZyme since 1951, but one thing that has absolutely stayed intact is the visionary nature of the company and its leadership.
Today, BioZyme has a family of brands which include AO-Biotics, VitaFerm, Sure Champ, Vitalize, Gain Smart, DuraFerm and Backyard Boost. Headquartered in St. Joseph, Mo., BioZyme reaches a global market of customers throughout the U.S., Canada, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
As our family of brands has expanded, so have our manufacturing capabilities and toll manufacturing opportunities. We now have three manufacturing facilities, two of which are in St. Joseph, Mo., and one in Lexington, Ky. The company puts a very strong emphasis on making safe, accurate products to create solutions that have an undeniable impact for the industry.
Roembke: BioZyme has a variety of manufacturing expertise in different specialty areas. Would you mind elaborating a little bit about some of those offerings?
Lee: Yeah, certainly. So we have three manufacturing facilities, as I stated, two of which are in St. Joseph, Mo., and one in Lexington, Ky. Those facilities were built for precision and versatility, and over the last 70 years, we've developed expertise and honed our skills in fermentation, liquids and gel manufacturing, blending of minerals there at our stockyard facility in St. Joseph, as well as drying, bagging and fulfillment opportunities as well.
In our fermentation facility, you'll find fermenters from 20 liters to 25,000 liters, so very versatile. At our blending facility, we have automated bagging for packages from 2 pounds all the way up to 2,000 pounds. In our liquid and gels facility, the equipment is fine-tuned for making and packaging products from 1 ounce to 5 gallons.
So very versatile. We're very good at that, but it's all based on precision.
Roembke: BioZyme was recently awarded Feed Facility of the Year by the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA). Can you tell us a little bit about how BioZyme delivers on quality in its day-to-day operations and brings that to the customer?
Lee: Absolutely! We are so ecstatic that we were named AFIA Feed Facility of the Year. Such a huge honor for us. But you know, not only did we win the award, we actually live that every day. It's really fun for us to be portrayed to the public — to let them see what we do — and how we live within our operation. Each and every day, the culture of BioZyme is one that highly values the quality of the products that we manufacture.
You know, our team is very committed to continuous improvement. There's always something new that a team member brings to the table. We could be doing better, and despite that, we're already doing a phenomenal job. We always entertain those ideas. We believe that the better our products are made, the more results that our customers are going to be able to receive.
Our team at BioZyme is largely involved in the animal agriculture industry. I mean, we live it personally. My wife and kids and I, we raise cattle. My daughter is involved in showing goats at the national level. And so we're actually, you know, not only are we manufacturing products, but we're actually using them in our personal lives, at home, not just myself, but many of our team members. We feel like because we live that as well, we know what our customers are looking for. We know the challenges that they're seeing, and we're working diligently every day to help bring technologies and products to the market that can not only benefit the livestock but benefit the people as well.
You know, back to what you said about the Feed Facility of the Year ... We're honored, we're humbled, but that quality is not just on audit day for BioZyme. It's what we live each and every day, and, you know, it's woven through the culture of our organization. I mean, we expect excellence, whether it's a BioZyme branded product or, you know, maybe it's just the cleanliness of the facility. Maybe it's the automation that we've installed, it's the processes that we've developed, you know, all of these things at BioZyme ensure that we produce and manufacture the highest quality products possible to bring to our customer base. And you know, it's not just here or there, it's each and every time.
Roembke: Excellent. Thank you so much, Alan, and thanks to you for tuning in. For more information about the things that we've discussed here today, visit biozymeinc.com. Thanks again, and have a great rest of your show.
Lee: Yeah. Thank you so much