New jobs are coming to Lexington. Allylix announced it will invest $1.6 million dollars, and 13 new full-time jobs.
The company will pay its new employees nearly $60,000 a year. Allylix credits the state with helping start the company, and the city for providing a great place to live.
"We started here, and once we were here this was a great place to be. We've got a great work force, we've got access to support from the University, great quality of life for our employees, and we just kind of built upon that."
The city says it works hard to be a place where people want to live.
"Lexington sells itself. So when we have a great quality of life, people can live anywhere, they can make the choice of where they want to live. If we give them a great place to live, that's where they're gonna want to live. That's where they're gonna want to do business," said Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.
The company started in Lexington after 12 years of research from UK led to a breakthrough. Scientists discovered a way to make a naturally occurring compound by fermenting yeast.
"We're able to produce compounds no one could produce economically before. It's a new way to use yeast to produce new types of renewable chemicals," said Fritz.
Allylix turns the yeast into fragrances and flavors as well as cosmetics and bio-fuels. The city hopes these 14 research based jobs will eventually lead to even more jobs in production and manufacturing.
