Liberation Labs, which is building manufacturing facilities in Richmond, has changed its name and brand to Liberation Bioindustries.
In a June 2 news release, company officials note the new name better identifies the company’s products and position as a global, commercial-scale, contract biomanufacturer.
Through precision fermentation, Liberation plans to make building block ingredients for food, pharmaceuticals and other industrial applications.
“As we move from concept to completion, the ‘Labs’ part of Liberation Labs felt unnecessarily limiting, if not outright confusing,” said Mark Warner, founder and CEO, in the release. “After all, the world is full of amazing biotechnologies that are at lab scale – we’re building the next generation of industrial biomanufacturing facilities to bring those products to market.”
Valerie Shaffer, Economic Development Corp. of Wayne County president, told board members at their June meeting that the plant’s construction has resumed at Midwest Industrial Park and could be complete in late 2025 or January 2026. Production is slated to start in the first quarter of 2026.
Shaffer said some of Liberation’s key leadership positions have been filled, and hourly hiring will resume in the fall.
Liberation plans to serve both new and established consumer packaged goods companies and other industrial manufacturers.
Company officials made two additional recent announcements, the release said.
It will produce commercial scale volumes of Vivitein BLG_, _a dairy protein for Dutch ingredients startup Vivici.
Officials also announced a strategic partnership with Topian, NEOM’s food company, to design and develop an advanced precision fermentation facility in Saudi Arabia. Feasibility planning is expected to begin in the second half of this year.
Most biomanufacturing capacity is currently in Europe, but production and shipping fees make sourcing from there to the United States cost prohibitive.
When sharing Liberation’s selection of Richmond in January 2023, Warner said the city stood out for being able to meet its needs for sugar, power and a workforce experienced in manufacturing.
A version of this article appeared in the June 11 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.