It’s pretty much a household name when it comes to soy sauce around here and far beyond. It’s Kikkoman with a plant right here in Folsom that is now celebrating a 25-year-milestone of being a vital part of the city’s economy.
Tuesday night, Folsom City Council honored Kikkoman for its 25 decades in the community. Folsom Mayor Rosario Rodriguez presented a proclamation to company leadership. In addition to being a longtime asset to the city, the company recently made a generous donation to to both the Folsom Environmental & Water Resources Department to update the city’s water quality testing laboratory and the Folsom Police Department for a camera trailer to help combat retail theft. The donation follows many years of supporting local youth scholarships and sponsorships of countless community events.
Kikkoman’s Folsom facility, located on Glenn Drive first opened in 1998 and is one of several of the company’s facilities across the globe. The companies early beginnings date back to a a small village north of Tokyo in the 1600s, where a group of families began making food seasonings.
Eventually, the family operation became the first Japanese company to establish a production plant in the United States and continues flourish with manufacturing facilities in several far away places, including Wisconsin, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Netherlands
After first coming to the United States with a plant in Walworth, Wisconsin, Folsom became home to Kikkoman’s second U.S. plant, opening up as a 95,000 square foot facility that opened on Oct. 6, 1998. At the time, the facility opened up at cost of $46 million.
The company reportedly chose Folsom over options in the Pacific Northwest due its close proximity to the Bay Area and Southern California. Folsom’s water quality was another factor in their decision to expand here.
“We are very proud to have Kikkoman Foods here in our community because they are such a great company, one that is internationally recognized, Joe Gagliardi, president and CEO of the Choose Folsom and the Folsom Chamber of Commerce said as he spoke at a previous community awards event. “They are very civic minded and have benefited our community in numerous ways through their scholarship programs and funding for various community projects and events. They are truly a model of what good business and corporate citizenry is all about.”
It wasn’t long after opening locally that the Folsom plant began producing more than 5.3 million gallons of naturally brewed soy sauce a year. The local plant was previously noted to produce approximately a fifth of its total U.S. Production annually as it continues to be the largest producer of soy sauce in the world.
(Photo: City of Folsom)