Röchling Medical opens new production hall and creates 30 new jobs

Eröffnen am Freitag gemeinsam die neue Produktionshalle der Röchling Medical Solutions SE in Neuhaus am Rennweg (von links): Jürgen Köpper, erster Beigeordneter des Landkreises Sonneberg; Uwe Scheler, Bürgermeister Neuhaus am Rennweg; Dr. Daniel Bühler, Vorstandsvorsitzender Röchling Medical; Alexander Stauch, Standortleiter Röchling Medical Neuhaus; Architekt Michael Müller; Thüringens Wirtschaftsminister Wolfgang Tiefensee; Evelyn Thome, Finanzchefin Röchling-Gruppe; Raphael Wolfram, Vorstandssprecher Röchling-Gruppe; Dr. Carl Peter Thürmel, stellvertretender Vorsitzende des Beirats der Röchling-Gruppe; sowie Dr. Andreas Gabriel, Chief Operating Officer Röchling Medical. (Foto: Röchling) / Opening the new production hall of Röchling Medical Solutions SE in Neuhaus am Rennweg together on Friday (from left): Jürgen Köpper, First Deputy Mayor of the Sonneberg district; Uwe Scheler, Mayor of Neuhaus am Rennweg; Dr. Daniel Bühler, CEO Röchling Medical; Alexander Stauch, Site Manager Röchling Medical Neuhaus; architect Michael Müller; Thuringia's Minister of Economy Wolfgang Tiefensee; Evelyn Thome, CFO Röchling Group; Raphael Wolfram, Spokesman of the Executive Board Röchling Group; Dr. Carl Peter Thürmel, Member of the Advisory Board Röchling Group; and Dr. Andreas Gabriel, COO Röchling Medical. (Photo: Röchling)

– Building forms part of an investment program with a volume of EUR 50 million until 2025
– Expansion enables production of up to 100 million tanks a year

Röchling Medical Solutions SE, a subsidiary of the Mannheim-based Röchling Group, celebrated the opening of the new production hall at its Neuhaus am Rennweg site in Germany on Friday, September 30, 2022. A total of EUR 50 million will be invested in the expansion until 2025, making it one of the Röchling Group’s biggest investments in a single location. The globally active plastics processing company will soon be able to produce up to 100 million tanks a year at this site using the co-extrusion blow molding technique.

“I am delighted that we have been able to expand our production capacities in Neuhaus with the new building. This lays the foundation for further organic growth and will allow us to meet our customers’ needs and requirements even more effectively in the future,” comments Dr. Daniel Bühler, who became the new CEO of Röchling Medical in early July. The investment, which is also creating 30 new modern jobs, became necessary because Röchling Medical has acquired a major order from a high-profile German pharmaceutical company for around 30 million tanks a year and this would have exceeded its existing capacity. The plastics processing company now aims to obtain additional major orders for the Neuhaus site, which produces packaging systems for the pharmaceutical, diagnostics and medical technology industries. Manufacturing, assembly, and packaging take place under controlled conditions in clean rooms.

The new building has a total area of 1,850 square meters. The first floor of the four-story building is home to the central element: a GMP class C and D clean room production facility covering a total of 1,700 square meters, where containers, bottles, and canisters made from thermoplastic materials will be produced for pharmaceutical and diagnostic applications from the first quarter of 2023 onward. Röchling has also invested in co-extrusion blow molding machines for the production facility. This will give the company a total annual capacity of between 80 and 100 million tanks, depending on the size required. It will be able to produce tanks with a volume of between two milliliters and ten liters. The material preparation facility and the ventilation and filtration systems are based on the second floor above the clean room. The ground floor is home to the plant room and logistics, some of which satisfy clean room conditions.

The Neuhaus site has expertise in almost all single-layer and multilayer blow molding technologies. “In particular, we have many years of experience and well-established expertise when it comes to extrusion blow molding. Combining this with automation and inline process controls allows us to manufacture and deliver highly complex products,” says site manager Alexander Stauch. To meet the specific demands of the medical technology and pharmaceutical industries, the planning process was conducted with a particular view to ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and enabling automation. The overall internal product flow is managed by an autonomous transport system to optimize production workflows under clean room conditions and to avoid product contamination.

In addition to the location’s environmental and energy standards, which are already certified under ISO 14001 and 50001, the basement of the new building features a cold storage system to sustainably save energy resources and reduce carbon emissions. Under this concept, the firefighting water tank for the sprinkler system, which has a volume of around 2,000 cubic meters, is reduced to a low temperature overnight as cold storage and the energy produced is used to supply the production lines with cooling water during the day. “In addition to LED lighting and controlled room ventilation, we have installed a compressed air station so that we can generate process air using energy-efficient oil-free compressors that meet the highest cleanliness standards,” says Stauch, who is responsible for the construction of the production hall.

The plant was founded exactly 20 years ago as HPT Hochwertige Pharmatechnik. The Röchling Group, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, acquired it in 2015. Röchling has already invested EUR 35 million in the first major phase of the location’s expansion. The plant site now encompasses more than 88,900 square meters, including six clean rooms with a total area of 5,600 square meters, a logistics and a training center. Last year, Röchling Medical processed around 8,000 metric tons of plastic granulate, mostly polyethylene and polypropylene, to manufacture around 360 million items of primary packaging material in Neuhaus. The company currently has 380 employees. It generated annual sales of almost EUR 60 million in 2021.

The new production building does not mark the end of the investments in the Neuhaus site. An existing building is being converted for another project, while a property acquired in 2019 in immediate proximity to the existing plant site is being transformed into an administrative and development building.

Röchling Medical generated sales of almost EUR 190 million last year. Following a robust start to 2022, the division remains on track for further growth. In addition to Neuhaus, Röchling Medical operates sites in Brensbach and Waldachtal, both Germany, Lancaster, Pennsylvania/USA, and Rochester, New York/USA, and Suzhou, China. The Medical Division had more than 1,200 employees at the end of last year.