SGD Pharma opens €65 million manufacturing site

The site is located in Saint Quentin, near Mers Les Bains in the Somme region of France 

The site stretches over 13 hectares and has production facilities that enable it to produce 1 million bottles per day, or 20,000 tonnes of glass per year. With local expertise and the transfer of existing teams, the first bottles were produced in September 2015 and the site was fully operational in February 2016. 

The site will become the group's global centre of excellence for this type of glass. It will also specialise in the production of moulded neutral glass for pharmaceutical bottles. The plant also houses its global R&D centre.

It is the first new glass manufacturing site to be built in France for 20 years. It has already hired 20 new employees and currently employs 270 staff.

The construction of the plant represented four challenges to the company:

Technology: design, construction and operational start-up in 18 months,

Industrial: the transfer of an industrial plant over several months without any interruption of production;

Financial: a €65 million investment for a site designed with special attention to environmental aspects (materials, energy), working conditions (ergonomics, light) and use of the best available technologies for manufacturing glass;

Human: the successful transfer of 250 employees in a transitional phase that lasted several months.

The company celebrated its inauguration by welcoming 150 customers and partners from around the world for the official opening of the site at the end of April.