Sartorius pumping over €100m into production network to support growth
For the first quarter 2016, Sartorius reported sales of €302m ($340m), up 17% on the same period last year driven by strong growth in the firm’s Bioprocess Solutions which focuses on single-use products for biomanufacturing.
The firm has now seen double digit y-o-y sales growth for six quarters in a row and is hoping to continue this “strong demand for Sartorius’ Bioprocess Solutions Division” through investments in its production network.
“For 2016 we plan to invest around 10% of sales - or more than €100m - essentially to expand our capacities across the world,” company spokesperson Andreas Theisen told Biopharma-Reporter.com.
While details of specific investments have not been revealed, he said there were already plans to expand instrument production at the firm’s headquarters in Göttingen, Germany, as well as adding filter and bag capacity at its plant in Puerto Rico.
CEO Joachim Kreuzburg added some colour during a conference call to discuss results:
“In Puerto Rico, I think it will be a figure that we will invest here for the full year, let's say, around $15m probably,” whereas investment in Germany will be roughly double this, he told investors.
Facilities in China and Korea will also be expanded, though Kreuzburg said these would be at a much smaller scale. “We are not building new buildings there, rather adding equipment, installations etc into our existing buildings.”
Sartorius’s bioprocessing business has also grown by inorganic growth, through the addition of acquisitions BioOutsource and Cellca last April and July, respectively.
“We are very happy so far with the development of these businesses, both are growing at double-digit rate,” Kreuzburg said.
