ST. LOUIS, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sigma-Aldrich has announced its intent to invest in a site at the Wuxi-New District Park (WND) located northwest of Shanghai, China, for its new Asia-Pacific manufacturing hub. Sigma-Aldrich has executed a memorandum of understanding with the WND authorities.
The site is to be developed in three phases. Sigma-Aldrich expects to initially invest $25 million to acquire land rights and construct its first-phase that includes a large-scale, non cGMP, multi-purpose organic manufacturing facility dedicated to supporting its SAFC(R) fine chemicals business unit. Sigma-Aldrich plans to commence construction of the new plant by year-end 2007. When fully developed the site is expected to produce raw materials, key intermediates and final products in support of SAFC’s Pharma, Hitech and Supply Solutions businesses through a manufacturing plant, and analytical, packaging and warehousing facilities.
Future development phases at the site will also support Sigma-Aldrich’s Research Essentials and Research Specialties business units and include the extension of analytical, packaging and warehousing facilities for its research-based business.
Commenting on the investment, Sigma-Aldrich CEO Jai Nagarkatti, stated, “As part of our 2005 strategic plan, we announced our intent to increase assets in CAPLA (Canada, Asia-Pacific, Latin America) regions to support the objective of achieving 25% of total revenue in CAPLA markets by 2010. This investment represents a significant step toward achieving that goal, as it will help us accelerate sales growth in the Asia Pacific region while allowing us to better serve both our local and global customer base.”
SAFC President Frank Wicks added, “The addition of our facility in China will add essential capacity to service growing demand for SAFC products. In particular, the combination of products manufactured in China and at our European and U.S. based sites is expected to provide us an unparalleled competitive offering to customers across all businesses.”
The development of the new China campus marks a continuation of SAFC’s “build and acquire” strategy, put in place to meet the increased demands for its medicinal chemistry and cGMP manufacturing services. The site complements Sigma-Aldrich’s state-of-the- art Bangalore, India facility, which commenced production in October, 2006. Representing an investment of $12 million, the 139,000 sq. ft. India site supports customers with the manufacture of small-scale, key intermediates for medicinal chemistry.
About SAFC: SAFC is the custom manufacturing and services group within Sigma-Aldrich that focuses on high-purity inorganics for high technology applications, cell culture products and services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, biochemical production and the manufacturing of complex, multi-step organic synthesis of APIs and key intermediates. SAFC has manufacturing facilities around the world dedicated to providing manufacturing services for companies requiring a reliable partner to produce their custom manufactured materials. SAFC has four focus areas -- SAFC Pharma, SAFC Supply Solutions, SAFC Biosciences, and SAFC Hitech -- and had annual sales of nearly $500 million in 2006. SAFC is one of the world’s 10 largest fine chemical businesses. For more information about SAFC, visit http://www.safcglobal.com.
About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Our biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical and other high technology manufacturing. We have customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use our products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 36 countries and has 7,700 employees providing excellent service worldwide. We are committed to accelerating Customers’ success through leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit our award-winning web site at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Cautionary Statement: This release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, goals, strategic actions and initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding the Company’s expectations, goals, beliefs, intentions and the like, which involve assumptions regarding the Company’s operations and conditions in the markets the Company serves. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
SAFC(R) is a registered trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P.
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CONTACT: Kirk A. Richter, Treasurer of Sigma-Aldrich, +1-314-286-8004
