In order to adapt its small-batch plastics production capacity to the growing number of projects, German packaging manufacturer Gerresheimer (Düsseldorf; www.gerresheimer.com) said it has invested an “eight-figure amount” in its Wackersdorf site in Germany. In a first step, an existing production area was converted into a 500 m² cleanroom said to meet the standards of ISO-14644-1 classes 8 and 7 and is already in operation.

Another building currently under construction for the next stage is to provide 245 m² of office space and around 1,200 m² of additional cleanroom space. After the conversion, the planned 2,200 m² of cleanroom for ISO classes 7 and 8 will be over twice as large as the area available for plastics production at the site, which is managed by the wholly owned subsidiary Gerresheimer Regensburg.

With the expansion of production to include medical products such as patch pumps used as disposable insulin pumps in diabetes therapy, Gerresheimer Regensburg has recently entered a new business field as an OEM. The classification of the company in the commercial register has been supplemented by the entry “manufacture of medical and dental devices and materials”. In addition to patch pumps, the company also produces insulin pens, inhalers and prefillable syringes. This area also includes products for diagnostics and medical technology such as lancing devices and testing systems.

The expansion of small-batch production in Wackersdorf became necessary due to the growing number of development projects for pharmaceutical and medical technology products. Prior to serial production, these products undergo a lengthy development and approval process, for which small quantities are repeatedly required as samples.

Gerresheimer had already invested an “eight-figure amount” in Wackersdorf in 2018. At the time, 900 m² of additional space was created for the production of glass products such as syringes and cartridges.

Since then, the packaging group was able to increase sales organically by 2.1% to EUR 349m in the third quarter of 2020 despite the temporarily lower demand for high-quality perfume bottles due to Covid-19. Adjusted EBITDA rose by 4.1% to EUR 75m in the same period.

The group cited the strong demand for primary glass and plastic packaging for liquid and solid medicines, syringes and drug delivery devices as the reasons for this increase. According to the company, the injection vials produced by Gerresheimer will be an important element of the pending Covid-19 vaccination drives. The packaging manufacturer announced investments in this business area without providing specific details. “We expect a strong fourth quarter,” CEO Dietmar Siemssen said.