Freudenberg Medical (Carpinteria, California / USA; www.freudenbergmedical.com) is to start construction of a new 11,000 m² medical manufacturing facility and global headquarters in Beverly, near Boston, Massachusetts / USA. Part of the German multinational Freudenberg Group (Weinheim; www.freudenberg.com), Freudenberg Medical manufactures a range of medical devices and components. Operating in nearby Gloucester, Massachusetts, since 1989, it plans to pump USD 3m (around EUR 2.6m) into the new facility, which will employ 70 people and be FDA-registered and ISO 13485-certified with ISO class 8 cleanrooms for medical moulding and assembly.

Construction on the new plant will kick off before the end of 2018, with start-up projected for the second half of 2019. The site is flexible enough for the facility to be expanded by a further 6,100 m² if necessary. Max Kley, Freudenberg Medical’s president and CEO, said locating the firm’s global headquarters in Beverly “demonstrates the global role and international orientation of the Boston med device cluster.”

The Freudenberg Group employs more than 47,000 staff worldwide and last year reported turnover of EUR 9.3 bn, up 18%, boosted by acquisitions including the 2016 purchase of automotive components supplier Vibracoustic (Darmstadt / Germany; www.vibracoustic.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 21.08.2018. Pre-tax profit was down 30% at EUR 833m.