The latest investment, backed by £143,000 ($218,000) in funding from the Welsh Government, is Essentra’s second expansion in Newport within a year, and will double staff numbers as the packager takes over a neighbouring 225,000 sq ft site on Imperial Park.
The outlay will go towards improving the company’s label services, “addressing market needs to deliver more content through complex multi-layer leaflet labels, provide tamper verification through a variety of label formats, and also enhanc[ing] our ability for personalisation of labels and serialisation,” Hugh Ross, European MD, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com.
The Milton Keynes-based company provides packaging services to the pharma industry, as well as the personal care and consumer goods sectors. Abour 70% of Essentra’s revenue comes from health and personal care.
GMP capability
The Newport facility has GMP production lines and cerrtifications for ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 and BRC/IoP global standards for packaging and packaging materials, Ross told us.
The company opened its Newport site in November 2014 with financing of £290,000 from the Welsh government and twenty staff. The same year, it installed a digital printing press and a Class 8 ISO 14644 cleanroom for producing printed primary packaging foils and labels for the healthcare market.
“Our further substantial additional investment in Newport will extend the capability and capacity of the existing site, as a centre of excellence for the manufacture and future development of our extensive range of innovative packaging, and will ensure that we are optimally positioned to continue to meet the exacting requirements of our customers,” said Ross.
The company has sites in the UK, continental Europe, and North America.