Cytiva is opening a facility in Cardiff, Wales to produce single-use bioprocessing technologies on the back of global demand.

The 11,000 m² Cardiff facility is part of the $1.5 billion investment announced in July 2021 to expand manufacturing capacity for life sciences products at thirteen Danaher Corporation sites run by Cytiva and Pall to meet customer demand.

Over two years, the company will invest £36 million ($47m) into the expansion at the Cardiff site, which has already begun to make flow kits, mixer bags, and tubing assemblies to be shipped to customers at a later date.

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“The first phase of construction has been completed and production has begun,” Mike Cooper, plant manager, Cardiff told BioProcess Insider.

“We expect to ship thousands of units of product this year while work continues on establishing five more cleanrooms, expected to complete later this year. When complete, this will increase Cytiva’s global capacity for making single-use technologies by 20%.”

By the end of this year, there will be six ISO 7 class (the air is filtered at least 30 times an hour and strict quality control procedures are followed) cleanrooms in Cardiff. The first cleanroom has already been installed in nine months and construction of five more cleanrooms will be completed during this year.

The facility will create 250 jobs and Cooper said the firm has already started an “intensive hiring drive over the past six months which will continue over the next 18 months.”

He continued: “While we are recruiting specialist roles such as in R&D, we also need many shopfloor workers – roles such as warehouse operators and material handlers. For those roles we are offering in-person training and support to bring them on board.”

Domestic capacity

The firm said that while the UK leads Europe with discovery research and start-up funding, there is a lack of domestic manufacturing present meaning that many companies invest offshore. By building a regional manufacturing plant in Cardiff, Cytiva claims it can help address the needs of the industry while strengthening capabilities that support long-term growth.

“We have operated in Cardiff for more than 40 years and it’s the home of our genomics R&D team. The neighbouring site is a center of excellence in genomics,” said Cooper.

He continued: “The pandemic has shown the criticality of the industry on a whole new level. In 2020, Cytiva’s magnetic bead products made in Cardiff enabled more than 120 million COVID-19 PCR tests worldwide. The company doubled manufacturing capacity of these products to meet ongoing needs. Cytiva is investing in their diagnostic operations in Cardiff by hiring more staff and building out infrastructure to meet future anticipated growth.”