Japanese Health Firm Plans $30-Million Project in Irvine

A Japanese manufacturer of health and nutrition products, Nikken Inc., is planning an aggressive expansion that includes hiring more than 200 people and building a new $30-million North American and European headquarters in the Irvine Spectrum.

Nikken, which moved to the Spectrum from Los Angeles about two years ago, will begin construction in July of a 213,000-square-foot facility that will house 500 people when completed in December 1998. The company purchased the 14-acre site on Irvine Center Drive from a subsidiary of the Irvine Co. for about $10 million.

Of the 200 people expected to be hired, most will be customer service operators to take phone orders. “We have only 60 workstations to take orders. We plan to have 300,” said Tom Watanabe, Nikken president and chief executive.

The low-profile company sells a line of Asian health products, including therapeutic mattresses, massagers, vitamins and herbal teas, through a network of 250,000 distributors nationwide and in Canada, much like direct marketer Amway Corp. of Michigan.

Nikken does not advertise, but in the past three years a growing network of distributors has increased its sales from $75 million to about $300 million, Watanabe said. This year it expects sales to increase more than 30% to $400 million.

“American people are becoming more receptive to the Oriental approach to health,” Watanabe said.

Increased profits led Nikken to build its current 55,000-square-foot headquarters on Barranca Parkway in 1995. At the time, the company employed only 70 people. Today the concern employs about 170.

Watanabe said the company, will keep its current facility and a bedding manufacturing plant in Santa Ana after it moves to the new facility.

Nikken started out as a door-to-door sales firm in Japan in 1975. The privately held firm opened its U.S. branch in 1989.