"India is a strategic pillar for the Sartorius Group,"

Dr Joachim Kreuzburg, Group CEO, Sartorius Group

In December 2005, Sartorius, a leading laboratory and process technology provider, announced the restructuring of its business in India by initiating the integration of its Biotechnology and Mechatronics divisions. Dr Joachim Kreuzburg, Group CEO, Sartorius Group, was in India to announce this and other plans.

Why have you integrated your Biotechnology and Mechatronics businesses in India?

Globally, we are a recognized supplier and R&D partner for the global pharma, biotech, chemical, and food and beverage industries. We do more than 75 percent our business as one of the global Top 3 players in the respective markets. We are operating two divisions-Biotechnology and Mechatronics. While the Biotechnology division covers the entire biotech process chain with filter technology, bioreactors, and services, the Mechatronics division delivers weighing solutions like balances and scales for laboratory and industrial applications.

For Sartorius, India is one of the three fastest growing markets worldwide. Further, Sartorius India is one of the three organizations in the Sartorius Group that has R&D, engineering, production and sales and marketing in both the divisions (the other centers being in Germany and the US). The two divisions in India operate as separate companies and we are now combining the management of both under one leadership. Amit Chatterjee will lead the India team as managing director, Sartorius India.

We have an ambitious growth plan laid out for India and a key element of our strategy is to present our customers with an integrated range of products and services that meet their functional, regulatory and management needs. This integration will strengthen the competence of process engineering in biotechnology and Mechatronics and offer customers a single window service from laboratory to process scale in weighing, filtration, fermentation and downstream solutions including training and validation services.

Why are you so bullish about India?

India is a stable and mature market and has a good track record. I am convinced that India will produce the next Amgen or Genentech of the world. It is one of the most dynamic markets and is bestowed with quality people and services. So Sartorius India is a strategic pillar for the Sartorius Group and a major cornerstone of our globalization strategy. For Sartorius, India will be strategic as a hub for engineering and services, as supply center to global markets, and as a domestic market.

What are you future plans for India?

With the integration, we will be able to enhance our presence, product portfolio and customer interaction. We intend to breach the Rs 100 crore mark in 2006.

We had decided to invest an additional sum of $4 million to consolidate, add new facilities and grow. We wish to develop our R&D center here as the global outsourcing base in engineering, components and software development.

We have decided on setting up a state-of-the-art process, application, and validation laboratory for the pharma and biotech industries, complete with utilities to support fermentation, down stream processing, sterile filtration and process weighing applications. We will have trained manpower and offer certified training for our customers to fulfil their GMP/GLP needs. This would be up shortly.

We are operating from five locations in Bangalore and will consolidate into one facility and expand so that we have enough space to grow this space to support our expansion for the next 10 years. We shall take the decision on the space in the next three months.

Our Indian facility is the first center in our group to have received the ASME certification. This means that we can provide high quality vessels for fermentors globally.

What are your manufacturing plans?

We are currently manufacturing engineering components, cross flow equipment, filtration housing, fermentation products etc. in the biotech arena. In fact on December 5, 2005, Mechatronics' 1,000th production of one line of product was opened. In fact a third of this product has been sold in the Asia-Pacific. We will soon start the production of scales for special markets. We are for example the leading player in the Carat market. We will be investing in industrial weighing solutions. To summarize, we shall be building additional production capabilities in manufacturing.

Ch. Srinivas Rao