Bilcare buys Singapore plant and plan for expansion of German site

Contract packaging firm Bilcare Research AG has announced an expansion plan for its manufacturing site in Bötzingen, Germany. The nit deals in the production of pharmaceutical packaging while also housing Bilcare’s sales team.

Andreas Pfefferle, Global Business Unit Head Pharma Packaging Innovations, said, “From Bötzingen we deliver mono-films as well as coated and laminated films from one production site and continuously develop the global pharmaceutical films business further.”

This was echoed by a Bilcare spokeswoman who told us, “The expansion of capacities for pharma blister films was necessary as a request of our customers’ raising demand.” The investment is not likely to create any new jobs she added, explaining that, “We are planning to cover the additional volumes with the current production team – especially as we invested already in fully automated slitting and packaging lines to handle higher volumes from Bötzingen.

Bilcare said the German expansion – specifics of which were not disclosed – is part of a €50m ($55m) investment programme designed to increase barrier film production capacity in response to growing European demand.

At the time Bilcare said that, with the support of an international European bank, it would expand its operations in a bid to achieve accelerated growth in domestic markets as well as in the target markets of South America and Asia.

In August, Bilcare announced that it would invest €15m to buy an extrusion and a stenter line for its facility in Staufen in a move that will create 15 jobs.

A few weeks later the firm revealed that it had bought a manufacturing facility in Singapore, citing growing customer demand from pharmaceutical companies in the Asia-Pacific market. The facility will be operated by Bilcare’s new division, Bilcare Research Singapore Pte.

The spokeswoman told us, “With the acquisition of the site in Singapore, Bilcare Research AG has a true global footprint and is able to serve the market from North America, Europe as well as Asia. The target is to serve the markets from the nearest production site.”