The Germany-based B Braun Group, which has operated a Brazilian subsidiary for 45 years, has started construction on a new industrial park in the industrial and business complex Complexo Industrial e Empresarial de São Gonçalo (Ciesg) in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro. The industrial park, in which the company is investing the equivalent of US$170m, will become B Braun’s biggest industrial site in South America to date.
The official groundbreaking ceremony was attended by the Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral Filho, Minister President of the German State of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, as well as local government officials and company employees.
The project, designed by architect Siegbert Zanettini, will be implemented in several phases and will cover a total construction site of 80,000m2 on a plot of 200,000m2. The park is located in Guaxindiba, near the BR-101 and RJ-104 freeways, Guanabara Bay and the petrochemical complex Complexo Petroquímico do Rio de Janeiro.
The focus of phase one will be the construction of a logistics centre, which will include storage areas for finished products and tanks for storing combustible materials. This will be followed by the construction of an administration centre and a medical device manufacturing plant. The entire project is scheduled for completion in 2017.
‘The plant in Ciesgis a major milestone for the Group in Brazil,’ said Otto Philipp Braun, Managing Director of Labóratorios B. Braun in Brazil and member of the B. Braun Management Board, who is responsible for the South American and Iberian Peninsula regions. ‘This new park will enable us to expand our production capacities for the manufacturing of IV administration sets for use in IV therapy. Annual production quantities increased initially from 56 million units to 84 million units and eventually to 112 million units.’
The new B Braun industrial park in Brazil was designed according to the principles of lean manufacturing, which aims to optimise production processes in order to cut costs and respond more swiftly to changing market conditions. Safety is another focu, so the park will be built to withstand risks such as fire, flooding, high winds and industrial accidents.
‘All facilities are being constructed in line with the sustainable building practices advocated by the Green Building Council. Our aim is to become the first industrial park in the healthcare sector to be awarded the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold standard,’ added Otto Philipp Braun.
The B Braun Group, which operates in more than 50 countries worldwide, has a comprehensive range of products in Brazil in the areas of IV therapy, volume therapy, anesthesia, enteral and parenteral nutrition, disinfection and hygiene, incontinence care, surgery, dialysis and home care. With 1,600 employees in Brazil and a global workforce of around 47,000, B Braun is one of the world’s leading healthcare suppliers.