After five years of growth, Prent China has moved into a new building that is twice as large as the previous one. It houses sales, product design, thermoforming, production control, secondary operations, as well as just-in-time delivery. It currently employs 300 people.
“This new building is truly a modern facility designed and constructed according to Class 8 Clean Room standards and is fully compliant with all medical requirements. It is ISO 9001 certified plus we will implement ISO 14000 in 2010,” said Joseph Pregont, Prent president and chief executive.
The building is divided into three Class 8 cleanrooms. “We expect the Chinese economy will continue to perform well. In the next 10 years, we believe China will experience a significantly higher growth rate than North America or Europe. At Prent China, we anticipate modest yearly growth from our already substantial consumer electronics business. Within our core medical business, we expect sales in the next five years to double at minimum, as more global medical device manufacturers move into China,” added BJ Nielsen, president of Prent Asia.
Prent plans to open its first European thermoforming facility in Denmark on 4 January 2010. The new building is state-of-the art and energy efficient and will house the company’s newest thermoformers with sophisticated robotics inside Class 8 cleanrooms. “The development of Prent Denmark – like our other global expansion initiatives – has been through organic growth, not acquisition growth,” said Prebont.
“This growth has been generated entirely within our own organisation. Consequently, we design our facilities all to be identical. Each contains identical all Prent-designed and manufactured thermoforming equipment and software systems. This not only gives us maximum control over the entire thermoforming process, but ensures maximum consistency for our customers around the world.”
When it opens, Prent Denmark will have product design capabilities and quality assurance, in addition to thermoformers and will employ 20–25 people. As demand grows the company will add tool engineering, tool building and secondary operations and more staff.
Prent purchased just over six acres of land for the site to allow for capacity expansion.
Peter Bay, Danish engineer and plastics specialist, will head Prent Denmark as managing director.
Contact www.prent.com
