P&A: Mr. Saalfeld, is Glatt often underestimated?
Volker Saalfeld: If you mean the overall portfolio, definitely yes. The name Glatt is known for fluid bed systems, but in a typical pharmaceutical process chain we cover much more: for example, weighing, mixing, conveying and the coating process. What is even less well known is that we already take on the galenic development and formulation of new products and are active in contract manufacturing.
And here at the Weimar site, we also offer engineering services from planning to turnkey systems – often with equipment purchased from other machine manufacturers.
The fluidized bed system that you delivered to Scandinavia last summer certainly accounted for a large part of your turnover in 2011: a continuously operating fluidized bed coater with a capacity of several tons per hour. Is the project typical for Glatt Ingenieurtechnik?
This was the largest plant of this type realized by Glatt Ingenieurtechnik to date – a coating plant for additives for the food and animal feed industry. We supplied the technology for the entire raw material preparation, storage and feed, right through to the entire building technology, all based on continuous fluidized bed technology. This is certainly a trend and typical of our projects in that we are increasingly covering ancillary systems and building services right through to lighting.
The second area of Glatt Ingenieurtechnik that I am responsible for, however, deals with completely different processes: We plan pharmaceutical plants – including those for liquid products, but also food and chemical plants.
How did it come about that the Engineering division is so strongly dedicated to liquid processes?
It seems strange, because many people think of plant technology when they hear the name Glatt, rather than solids plants. But our biggest projects were systems for liquid sterile processing. Why is that? Perhaps because liquid pharmaceutical processes are simply more complex than solids processing. More complex planning tasks are more likely to be handed over to a specialized engineering office. In fact, when we entered the market, we had to argue strongly to make our expertise clear. Thanks to our references, this is now easy for us.
For example?
We received our first engineering order for an insulin factory in Kiev, Ukraine, back in 1994. Another important project was the blood plasma fractionation plant in Kirov in Russia – a completely new factory on a greenfield site with an investment volume of 250 million euros. We are currently planning an infusion solution plant for Russia as well.
You are obviously now well established in Russia.
Yes, we are well positioned there and have the necessary licenses for the planning and construction of plants. But we are working on diversifying further regionally. This is already bearing fruit, for example in Scandinavia and Saudi Arabia. We are also currently planning an infusion solution plant there. And our involvement in India is also paying off with the first major project for GlaxoSmithKline.
Despite your proven expertise in pharmaceutical plant engineering, you don’t want to limit yourself to this application sector, but also cover chemical and food processes. What is the connecting element here?
We divide potential projects into three categories. Firstly, those to which we can contribute Glatt technologies or our established experience, for example in the infusion solutions sector. The second category includes projects for which we use licenses from third parties – such as insulin production, for which we used a Hoechst license. In the third category, the customer contributes the relevant know-how. If a project doesn’t fit into one of these categories, we don’t do it. Otherwise we would be on the slippery slope and would have to reinvent things. That would not be attractive for our customers.
In addition to engineering and plant construction, Glatt also takes on contract manufacturing orders. When will you offer to operate the systems you have built?
We are already discussing this with various customers. I see a possible trend here that we want to address. Another trend is reflected in the keyword Excellence United …
… and the alliance of mechanical engineering companies for the pharmaceutical sector, which was presented at Interpack last year? What is its aim?
Together, the member companies Glatt, Fette Compacting, Uhlmann, Bausch + Ströbel, Harro Höfliger and VisioTec cover a wide range of processes and machines used in the pharmaceutical industry. In the project business, two or more of these companies can work together under one management. We are also pooling our resources in after-sales service – among other things, in order to carry out maintenance and repairs better and more cost-effectively in different country regions: A service employee from one of the participating companies can always be on site and at least cover the initial trouble-shooting for the others.
When will such a cross-company service be implemented?
We are currently training the first service lutes that we want to deploy across the machines and systems of the Excellence United members.
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