Glass and ceramics specialist Corning (Corning, New York / USA; www.corning.com) has agreed to buy all the outstanding shares of Plaslab SAS, the holding company of disposable laboratory-ware manufacturer Plastiques Gosselin (Borre / France; www.gosselin.eu). The purchase price has not been disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010 and Plastiques Gosselin will be integrated into Corning’s Life Sciences segment. Jean Gosselin, president and CEO Plaslab and Plastiques Gosselin will remain with the business in a similar capacity.

Privately-owned Plastiques Gosselin produces Petri dishes, bottles, tubes, bags and accessories used for laboratory sampling, testing and analysis in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In addition to its main plant, it has manufacturing operations in Sfax / Tunisia and Blackburn / UK, plus a sales and marketing operation in Buffalo / USA. The company has 300 staff, more than 40 injection moulding machines and some 10 blow moulding machines.

Plastiques Gosselin’s UK factory only began production on 1 July this year, having been set up to better serve customers in northern Europe. The Blackburn site incorporates offices and a production and warehouse area of 1,700m². This includes a 700m² clean room built to class ISO5 specifications for production of Petrie dishes and a controlled environment area of another 700m². The plant’s current workforce of 23 is expected to rise to 37 by the end of 2011.