Vetter Pharma ups storage capacity with warehouse expansion

Vetter Pharma has completed its €20 million ($19 million) warehouse expansion, which it says will help meet customer supply demands.

Contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Vetter says that the fully automated building located in Ravensburg, Germany optimizes the firm’s logistical infrastructure by providing storage space for materials it considers having high-stock turnover rates, such as packaging components.

The firm claims that construction of the warehouse, which began in April 2021, will mean that “valuable capacity” is freed up in the existing warehouse.

Vetter Pharma at CPHI, 2022. Image C/O Millie Nelson

“The additional warehouse is a further testament of our commitment to support our customer’s supply chain needs,” said Peter Soelkner, managing director at Vetter.

“We have also planned for more investment projects that will help us to continue the momentum of sustainable growth of our company.”

The facility – built to address the CDMO’s strategic expansion plans – consists of 7,700 square meters of logistics space, which includes 1,200 square meters used for incoming and outgoing goods as well as 6,500 square meters of room temperature storage with the capacity for over 16,000 pallets and shelf height of 14 meters.

Furthermore, the warehouse has automated forklifts and a receiving area ramp connected to the transfer area, which has six positions for trucks. Additionally, there are four driverless shuttles that connect the transfer area with the facility’s shelves.

“We have already taken a process-related expansion concept into account during our planning process. The warehouse operation will initially start with a two-shift operation which can be extended to three shifts per day,” Peter Mayer, senior vice president customer project management, procurement and logistics at Vetter explained.

Future expansions

Vetter says that a production building for aseptic manufacturing in Frankfurt, Germany will be complete by the end of 2026. On top of this, the CDMO anticipates implementing additional automated visual inspection machines and various cleanrooms.

“Despite the multi-faceted challenges, we currently face, such as pandemic as well as political and economic circumstances, we will continue to invest over the next years to expand our capacities in the areas of development services, aseptic filling, visual inspection, and packaging to meet the increasing market demand. The planned expansions will go hand in hand with the optimization of the infrastructure across all our sites,” said managing director at Vetter, Thomas Otto.