Beauty products manufacturer prepares move into Truckee Meadows

A South Carolina company will bring 25 jobs to the Reno area with the possibility of 75 more within three years as it develops a beauty products manufacturing facility in northern Nevada.

Scienceuticals Inc. of Summerville, S.C., said last week it leased 55,000 square feet at 10991 Lear Blvd. in the Stead area for a West Coast development and manufacturing facility.

The company provides custom development, contract manufacturing and distribution services for clients in the skin care, personal care, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

The Reno facility will double the company's capabilities in research and development as well as manufacturing.

Along with its South Carolina home, Scienceuticals operates locations in New York, California and China.

In Reno, the company expects to hire chemists, laboratory technicians, account managers and administrative, distribution and production workers.

The company has carved a niche for itself as a creator of cosmetics and beauty products. It tells clients that it can move more quickly and more cost effectively than clients' in-house staffs to develop new products and get them to market.

Scienceuticals engineers, meanwhile, design equipment that's used in cosmetics manufacturing, and the company is a major international player in contract manufacturing and contract distribution of beauty products.

Don Hayden, chief executive officer of Scienceuticals, said the company chose Reno over other locations that included Boise, Portland, Phoenix and Albuquerque because of its location at the center of major Western markets. The company also was attracted by the availability of the skilled workforce it needs, he said.

The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, which wants to attract more advanced manufacturing companies to the region, worked with Scienceuticals to nail down its plans in northern Nevada.

Chuck Alvey, president and chief executive officer of EDAWN, called the company's decision "a real boon for our economy," particularly because it comes at a time when the region has been losing jobs to the recession.