B Braun celebrates anniversary amid strong growth

B.BRAUN Medical is celebrating ten years in Sheffield and is confident that despite the global economic downturn the business will continue to expand.

The UK arm of the global health care giant saw sales leap by 35% to £83.1m during 2007, and is on course for consolidated sales in excess of £100m during the current financial year.

The company was formed ten years ago with the amalgamation of all Braun businesses in the UK and the transfer of products, services and people to a purpose-built headquarters at Thorncliffe Park and manufacturing plant at Allen Street, Sheffield.

The group has been following a two-pronged growth strategy of targeted acquisitions and expanding its portfolio of health care products, therapies and services.

The B.Braun Sterilog division has invested more than £20m building, equipping and opening state of the art decontamination centres in Birmingham and Leeds – the world’s largest such facility – which sterilise surgical instruments used in hospitals throughout the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

Group chief executive Hans Hux said: “Growth, innovation and improvement are the driving forces of our activities and in 2007 everything came together. From being a stable generic business we are now a very attractive, innovative company. Two thirds of our business is new products introduced to the market over the last four or five years.”

Looking ahead, work has started on a new, £2m state-of-the-art medical facility at its Thorncliffe Park site. The revolutionary Aseptic Unit will feature one of the most advanced drug preparation robots in Europe which can manipulate highly toxic and time sensitive drugs for people undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

The unit will be able to prepare drugs with a very limited shelf life and distribute them to any destination in a two-hour radius of the facility, including 180 hospitals in Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.