Contract manufacturer Bell International Labs plans Eagan facility

Bell International Laboratories plans to break ground Monday on a new headquarters and plant in Eagan.

Mo Saremi, who came to Minnesota about 35 years ago from Iran to earn chemistry degrees at Minnesota State University, Mankato, said his family-owned Bell International needs to vacate two smaller facilities in Minneapolis because of surging demand for his products.

Bell International is a research-and-development lab and contract manufacturer for the nutritional, cosmetic and hair-care industries. The 125-employee company expects revenue to grow 60 percent this year to $35 million-plus.

An industrial chemist who worked for other companies for about a decade, Saremi started Bell International in 1996.

"I owe everything to this country," said Saremi, who stayed here after the 1980 Iranian revolution that installed a conservative-religious government. "None of this would have happened without the people who work here."

Saremi said the company's growth is propelled particularly by name-brand manufacturers of spray-on and organic sun-care and tanning products.

He expects to add up to 50 employees next year in Eagan. Sales are expected to grow by more than 40 percent to $50 million.

Saremi said he will invest about $10 million to refurbish and expand an existing plant that will increase ­manufacturing and other space to 120,000 square feet in an Eagan industrial zone. The company currently operates in two facilities with 75,000 square feet of space combined. The new space offers more power, a better production floor and more efficiency, with administration, research and production consolidated in one building.

Bell International provides "everything a company needs to launch a new product — from research and development to production and packaging. We are behind many brand names you see on store shelves," Saremi said.

Neal St. Anthony • 612-673-7144