Episciences builds new skin care manufacturing facility

By the end of the year, Boise-based Episciences Inc. will be able to triple production of its skin care products with the opening of a new manufacturing center across the street from its current property on Emerald Street.

Episciences is relocating manufacturing from its 5,536-square-foot headquarters building to the new 18,446-square-foot building now in the closing stages of construction. The other company office will remain in the current building, which it has occupied since 2006 after the company was established in 2002.

“When we bought it, there was a lot of extra space,” said Trish Stack, vice president of marketing at Episciences. Now we have just completely outgrown it.”

The nearly $3 million expansion allows Episciences to double its number of 150-liter mixers from two to four. The new space also enables the company to run three shifts, which isn’t possible in the current configuration, Stack said.

The manufacturing center will have “clean” rooms built to Class 100 standards

Episciences will be able to increase production from filling 30,000 product containers per shift to 100,000 containers, she said.

“We have been growing more than 30 percent for the last five years,” Stack said.

Episciences does the research, development and production of Epionce products for anti-aging, dark spots, acne and extremely dry skin sold through physicians’ offices and medical spas. It is distributed throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. The flagship product is Epionce Renewal Facial Cream.

Episciences has nearly 70 employees with growth expected in the next year, though exact numbers have not been determined, Stack said.

Construction started in February. McAlvain Design Build of Boise is the general contractor, neUdesign of Meridian is the architect and D.L. Evans Bank of Burley financed the project.