Firm fails to hit jobs target, owes county $200K

SARASOTA — Enzymedica, an enzyme supplements firm that moved from Charlotte County to Sarasota County in 2012 after it received more than $200,000 in subsidies from Sarasota, failed to fulfill the majority of its jobs commitment.

Enzymedica, now based in Venice, received $216,000 in January 2012 from Sarasota County, according to a county memo. The funds, states the Sarasota County memo, were for “expenses related to relocation and renovation of its business.”

Founded in 1998, Enzymedica sells a variety of digestive enzyme products, and company officials, in a 2012 Business Observer story, say the firm had at least $10 million in sales in 2011. In return for the incentives, Enzymedica “represented that it would create and retain 72 new jobs to employ 72 additional full-time employees between October 26, 2011 and October 25, 2016,” say county officials.