Industry & Business

Plans for GRIFOLS International Logistics Centre – Grange Castle Business Park, Dublin (Stewart Building)

Global Healthcare Company Grifols is to Create 140 Jobs with $100 Million Investment.

Grifols is the world’s third-largest plasma product manufacturer. It is a pioneer in the research and development of therapeutic alternatives designed to contribute to both scientific and social development.

The healthcare company has officially opened its Bioscience Division global operations center in South County Dublin.

The facility is located at Grange Castle Business Park and will house operating activities including the warehousing of plasma, intermediate and finished product; labeling, packaging and final conditioning of the product; regulatory and quality activities relating to the supply of plasma and plasma derivatives; R&D global management office; administrative and commercial activities among others.

In addition, the Group’s global treasury activities are carried out at this facility. The global treasury function allows Grifols to operate its own in-house bank, acting as the only borrower (credit facilities, bonds, etc.) and lending funds to Group’s subsidiaries.

The new Grifols Worldwide Operations Facility also centralizes decision-making with regard to the Bioscience Division commercial policy, R&D and supply chain. Grifols relocated these operations and its treasury function to Ireland last year.

The Bioscience center is scheduled to come on stream in the first half of 2016 and will generate approximately 140 jobs when it is fully operational.

This division generated sales revenue of €2,513 million in 2014-75% of the group’s total net revenue. It manufactures plasma proteins and focuses on promoting its therapeutic use.

Grifols’ new facility has been inaugurated by Ireland’s Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton. The Minister for Justice and Equality,  Frances Fitzgerald; the Spanish High Commissioner for Marca España, Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros; and the Spanish Ambassador to Ireland, José María Rodríguez Coso also attended the grand opening. They were joined by the President and CEO of Grifols, Victor Grifols, members of the company’s Board of Directors, as well as by several senior management of the Group and CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan.

Approximately $100 million have been invested in the new Grifols operations facility in Dublin, that occupies 22,000 m2 of an 11-hectare site.

The project is the result of Grifols growth strategy, with a strong emphasis on the internationalisation and globalisation of activities. Grifols generated 93.4 percent of its sales outside of Spain in 2014, and the company currently has direct commercial presence in 30 countries and distributes its products in 100 cpuntries.

Regarding Bioscience Division, the three Grifols’ industrial facilities located in the United States (Clayton and Los Angeles) and Spain (Barcelona) are able to produce 26 different types of plasma-derived products which are marketed in 67 countries.

The new worldwide Operations Facility is part of this Expansion Plan and will be the global logistics and distribution hub of Grifols’ Bioscience Division. The site has been chosen for its first-class infrastructures, a strategic gate board to the European market.  It will be the central warehouse for all plasma coming from the United States, as it has the capacity to store up to 1,150 pallets of plasma at -30 degrees centigrade, and is equipped with quality control laboratories. It will be the central warehouse for intermediate and finished products, with capacity to store up to 3,000 pallets of intermediate and finished products at a temperature of +5 degrees centigrade.

The South Count Dublin centre will centralise the tasks of labeling, packing, final conditioning, and distribution of finished plasma product to all Grifols’ commercial subsidiaries and global distributors, other than Spain and the United States, facilitating a fast flow of goods. It has 4 labeling and packing lines. The company expects to process about 10 million product vials in 2016.

Speaking at the event in South County Dublin, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton said: “I am delighted that Grifols, a Spanish company has chosen Ireland to invest in Ireland.  One of the strongest sectors in the Irish economy is life sciences, we have a cluster of virtually all the leading world companies in this sector located in Ireland and it is a sector that we have identified as part of our Action Plan for Jobs which has significant potential for job creation.  The investment by Spanish company Grifols is a testament to the quality workforce available in Ireland.”

Commenting on the investment Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland said “Grifols is a very welcome addition to the thriving Life sciences sector in Ireland.  Its decision to establish this important part of its international business in Ireland plays an important role in attracting other investments from the European marketplace. This is a breakthrough investment for Ireland in the important blood plasma subsector of biopharmaceuticals. Gaining European FDI is a key objective of IDA’s new strategy, Winning: Foreign Direct Investment 2015-2019.”

The investment is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.

For more information, visit www.grifols.com