Kikkoman Opens $560 Million Wisconsin Soy Sauce Plant Ahead of October Shipments

Kikkoman Foods held the grand opening of its Jefferson, Wisconsin, plant on September 18, 2026, with commercial shipments scheduled to begin in October. The facility is the company’s third production plant in the United States and represents a planned investment of about $560 million over a ten year period.

The Jefferson site covers about 100 acres and includes approximately 240,000 square feet of floor space. Kikkoman says it will produce soy sauce and related seasonings, giving the company another large production base for retail, foodservice and manufacturing demand in North America.

Construction began in April 2024, while soy sauce brewing started in May 2026. The opening therefore marks the transition from construction and fermentation work toward commercial distribution, rather than the completion of the full ten year capital programme.

Kikkoman’s first U.S. plant in Walworth, Wisconsin, began shipments in 1973, and its Folsom, California, plant followed in 1998. Jefferson becomes the group’s ninth soy sauce production base outside Japan.

The company says shipments from Walworth have continued to grow and describes North America as its largest overseas market. Jefferson is intended to expand supply capacity and support a broader range of products tailored to customer needs.

The $560 million figure should be read carefully. It is Kikkoman’s planned investment over ten years, not a claim that the entire amount had been spent when the plant opened.

Kikkoman has not disclosed a production capacity figure for the Jefferson plant in its opening announcement. The clearest verified indicators of scale are therefore the site area, building size, product range and long term capital plan.

For the North American food sector, the project adds domestic capacity for a widely used fermented seasoning while reducing pressure on Kikkoman’s older U.S. plants. Its commercial significance will become clearer once October shipments begin and production ramps through the next phase.