The Athens, Georgia facility will create 1,700 jobs and more than double Meissner’s US filtration and single-use product manufacturing footprint, the firm says.

Meissner Corporation is investing nearly $250 million into the new facility in Winterville, Athens-Clarke County, the company announced this week.

Once complete, the facility will boast cleanroom facilities, laboratories, research and development, and office spaces, and will substantially grow the firm’s current US footprint for single-use systems, filtration products, and aseptic filling systems used in the biomanufacturing industry.

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“We are planning for this facility to be operational in 2026 and it will manufacture our entire portfolio of products, inclusive of filter and therapeutic manufacturing systems,” Meissner spokesperson Karisa Koenig told this publication.

“This site should allow Meissner to more than double its US-based manufacturing capacity. Additionally, the 250+ acres acquired for this project will allow us continued future growth opportunities.”

The expansion was welcomed by the state of Georgia, with Governor Brian Kemp saying Meissner will have access to “a talented workforce and strong partnership with both the state and the people of Athens-Clarke County.”

According to Koenig, “Meissner went through a very extensive site selection process that considered access to talent, logistics, natural hazards, quality of life, business environment, and other factors. This particular location in Athens gives us access to the Georgia University system, specifically, University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Athens Technical College.

“It was also important to recognize the convenience of a more proximate location to our East Coast client base, and our European client base.  Further, this location will allow us to have manufacturing redundancy within the US.”

The firm currently has a 176,000 square-foot site in Camarillo, California boasting 40,000 square feet of cleanroom space, and a single-use systems facility in County Mayo, Ireland that began operations in 2020.