Actega Rhenania makes major investment in research at site in Germany

The company, which belongs to the specialty chemicals Group Altana, is investing around 10 million EUR (11.3 million USD) in the new building. The foundation stone was laid on August 18.

Encompassing a space of 5,700 sqm, the new laboratory building of Actega Rhenania will be twice as large as the site’s two current labs combined. Research and development, quality control and service will now be united under one roof.

‘So far, these laboratories have been housed in separate buildings,’ commented Dr Thomas Sawitowski, Actega Rhenania managing director. ‘By bringing together these departments in one building we are optimizing our processes and thus can support our customers even more efficiently with new developments.’

The laboratory building was planned by architects and engineers of Vollack, which specializes in the conceptual design, planning, and completion of office and industrial buildings.

A customer technology center will also be integrated into the new building, and contain various production facilities in miniature format, enabling Actega to understand the production processes and specific requirements of customers better than purely under laboratory conditions. With the planned customer technology center, Actega Rhenania will be able to test new trends for packaging, such as coffee capsules and aluminum trays, at a central location.

‘One of our most important competitive advantages is that we develop innovative packaging solutions in close cooperation with our customers,’ added Sawitowski. ‘With the new representative customer technology center we will now meet this demand spatially as well.’

The move into the new building is slated for mid-2017. Subsequently the old laboratory buildings will be dismantled.