Leadership at Veterinary Pharmaceutical Solutions cut an orange, blue and white ribbon on May 6 in a ceremony that unveiled an expansion nearly doubling the company’s presence in St. Peter while celebrating their 30 year history.
The 30th anniversary celebration offered customers a tour of newly opened 8,400-square-foot expansion to VPS’ facility at 2008 Sunrise Drive. The expansion features additional compound bays, warehouse space and R&D facilities, allowing VPS to pour more resources into the creation and development new pharmaceuticals for livestock care.
With the new facility, the VPS building is nearly double its original size. The expansion was driven by the company’s growing line of veterinary medicines. Due to FDA regulations, each drug must be developed in a separate space and VPS was quickly outgrowing its own.
The ceremony also served to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of the day brothers Bill and Pat Soderlund formed the livestock compounding company under the name VetRX.
The Soderlunds came from a lineage of pharmacists, learning the trade from their father, who they worked for at Soderlund Village Drug in St. Peter. The brothers eventually purchased the store from their father in 1997, operating it as both a drug store and a facility where they could compound custom drugs for livestock.
Livestock made up a majority of the Soderlunds’ business when they were still operating the drug store, leading the brothers to shift their focus to the VetRX side of the company. The market demand was so large, they would eventually expand their operations by moving to VPS current facility in 2009, where they could produce far more medications than what the drug store allowed.
VetRX would eventually be rebranded to VPS in 2020 after Granite Creek Capital purchased a majority share of the company from the Soderlunds. However, the brothers still maintain a stake in VPS in their semi-retirement.