AML Riverside, a Fort Dodge maker of animal pharmaceuticals, is about to launch another expansion project.

It will be an $11 million investment that will create 16 new jobs.

“This investment will provide an important new capability for our Fort Dodge facility that enables continued future growth,” Stephen Sibson, the company’s global head of manufacturing, said in a written statement.

The planned expansion is the result of a successful research and development project for one of the company’s customers.

AML Riverside will be adding to the existing building to create a dispensing room, multiple processing rooms and large granulation processing equipment.

The new facilities are expected to be in use by mid 2024.

Company leaders have not disclosed what the new product will be.

In 2020, the company launched a $6 million investment in the local plant to enhance research and development capabilities there.

“Over the last six years, AML Riverside has seen quite a bit of growth with additional employees and investment,” said Dennis Plautz, the chief executive officer of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance.

“With them purchasing that building, it was the best and highest use possible,” he added. “It was definitely a win when AML invested in Fort Dodge, for now and the future.”

AML Riverside is located at 141 Riverside Drive in a facility that longtime residents of the community remember as the Fort Dodge Laboratories Riverside Plant.

AML’s parent company, New Zealand based Argenta, purchased it in 2015 from Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica.

The company purchased the plant because its New Zealand facility was running at maximum capacity and because the United States is the company’s biggest market. Production in Fort Dodge began in 2016 with one product for livestock and has since expanded.

“I remember hosting Doug Cleverly, the owner at that time, at my parents’ house when we were finalizing the deal,” Mayor Matt Bemrich said. “Doug said that it was a dream of his to have a successful pharmaceutical facility in the United States. He didn’t disappoint.”

While the company produces animal pharmaceuticals, a bottle with the name AML Riverside will not be found in any veterinarian’s office. That’s because AML makes products for other companies which are sold under those companies’ names.

The Fort Dodge site is the company’s first production facility in North America. It also has research facilities in Kansas and New Jersey.

On Monday, the Fort Dodge City Council will consider scheduling a public hearing as a first step to potentially giving the company up to $200,000 worth of assistance through tax increment financing.