The global Eppendorf Group is building a new factory for high-quality laboratory consumables made from functional high-tech polymers. To this end, the Hamburg life sciences company is acquiring a former production site at the MV Werften Fertigmodule Property GmbH site in Wismar in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The site currently covers more than 20,000 m2 Usable area with production and storage areas as well as office and outbuildings. Production of the first high-tech polymer products is scheduled to start at the end of this year.
“We are very pleased that Eppendorf has found a location in Wismar with ideal conditions for implementing its growth strategy. The new production site, which we will set up here quickly, will enable Eppendorf to consistently expand its very successful business with laboratory consumables,” says Eppendorf Dr. Peter Fruhstorfer, Co-CEO of Eppendorf SE. “Here in Wismar we have everything we need to successfully expand our production capacities: sufficient space, a very good structural infrastructure, ideal transport connections and many well-trained specialists from the region who we want to attract to Eppendorf.”
State-of-the-art laboratory consumables for research and development
In Wismar, Eppendorf will manufacture high-quality polymer products for the world market, which are indispensable for scientific work in the laboratory. These include, for example, pipette tips or reaction vessels for processing laboratory samples. The global market for these products has been growing continuously for years and received an additional boost from the corona pandemic. This worldwide trend will continue in the coming years and Eppendorf wants to participate in it with the new plant in Wismar.
“The inclusion of the Eppendorf Group in our local operations is a win for the region in two respects. A company from a future-oriented industry that creates new high-quality jobs strengthens the economic power of our state,” said Reinhard Meyer, Minister for Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Tourism and Labor of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. “In the future, high-quality laboratory consumables such as pipette tips and reaction vessels for laboratories in hospitals and in diagnostics, chemical, pharmaceutical and biotech companies will be manufactured here worldwide. In addition, attractive future prospects have been created for Wismar as a location affected by the decline in shipbuilding: When recruiting employees, Eppendorf expressly wants to fall back on specialists from the transfer company founded by the shipbuilder MV Werften and offer them new perspectives.”
dr Christoph Morgen, insolvency administrator of the MV Werften Group, explains in this context: “We carried out a broad search for investors, including from the construction, yachting and camping sectors. Economics Minister Reinhard Meyer put us in touch with Eppendorf SE as an interested party. Within just six weeks, we managed to work out a good and sustainable solution together: With Eppendorf, a future-oriented industry is settling in Wismar, which creates new jobs and offers former employees extensive retraining opportunities from MV shipyards.”
Into the future with Wismar: design growth in a targeted manner
The main plant for the manufacture of high-tech polymer products in Oldenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, has been massively expanded in recent years and will produce around four billion high-tech polymer products in 2021. Website are very limited.
“We as a board of directors are very confident that with the new Eppendorf site in Wismar we can shape the future and the growth of the consumables business exactly as we envision it,” said Fruhstorfer, adding that what matters now is the Start production as quickly as possible and find targeted specialists for the new location. This will begin shortly.
The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
