The UK firm will add cleanroom, production and warehousing space at its facility in Bicester, Oxfordshire, expanding the plant’s footprint by some 60 per cent. The first phase of the project is due to be completed this autumn.
Cherwell said the extra capacity will enable it to ‘rapidly respond’ to drug industry customers’ needs, explaining that batch size can vary from more than 5,000 plates down to just 50 plates for selective or investigational medias.
Managing director Andy Whittard told in-Pharmatechnologist.com that: “Our ability to meet specific needs is a big differentiator for us compared to some of our larger competitors.
“This can be in meeting specific formulation requirements, such as customer specified inclusion rates of neutralisers or enzymes such as Pencillinase, and bespoke packaging requirements to help reduce wastage, such as packed in 5's.”
“We also recognise the need from pharma for not only the high volume environmental monitoring media but also low volumes of selective media for specific test requirements, for example water testing, isolate identification and specific pharmacopoeia testing.
Italy key to export growth
Cherwell also cited its recent sales performance as a reason for the expansion, explaining that in the last 12 months alone it had seen export revenues increase by 20 per cent.
Whittard explained that: “Currently we have a strong export market in Italy through our distributor International PBI. We have seen good growth here thanks to their efforts and also improved competitiveness, one reason being the favourable exchange rates.
“We are looking to develop export sales in Western Europe and are currently focused on identifying and securely a distributor in Denmark.
Whittard went on to say that to meet this demand, in addition to the facility expansion, the firm may well increase its headcount, hiring staff in production, warehousing and logistics as well as in sales and support roles.