Phibro seeks market expansion with new Irish biotech facility

11-Jul-2018 - Last updated on 11-Jul-2018 at 07:23 GMT

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Phibro Animal Health is looking to expand its presence in Europe with the acquisition of what will be its first biologicals production facility in Ireland.

The New Jersey-based animal health and feed additive company announced last week that it had acquired a facility in Sligo, Ireland. It is hoping to create 150 jobs there over the next five years, it said.

The project is supported by the Irish government through IDA Ireland.

Phibro Animal Health Corporation develops and manufactures a wide range of animal nutrition, mineral and health products for poultry, swine, cattle, dairy and aquaculture producers. The company had $764m in annual sales in over 65 countries during its most recent fiscal year.

The investment in the Sligo facility is part of the company’s effort to expand its market footprint in Europe and address the needs of producers looking, in part, to remove antibiotics or other products from feed or production, said Richard Johnson, CFO of Phibro.

“The EU is a major producer of animal proteins – poultry or swine or otherwise – so it’s a market that has a lot of size and opportunity,” he told FeedNavigator. “We believe that we have good products that will address the needs of the market – it’s EU driven and Ireland is a good country to do business in.”

The site includes a facility that had previously been in use, but that is expected to take several years to reconfigure to the specifications needed for production, he said. “It will take several years to bring in, do the technology transfer, get the appropriate regulatory approvals and all the things needed to ramp up production,” he added.

Products produced at the Sligo facility are anticipated to start contributing to the company’s financial results in the next three to five years, the company reported.

The new site will initially focus on producing its line of vaccines for the treatment of a range of poultry diseases for sales globally. The company said it will expand production at a later stage to include vaccines for livestock and aquaculture.

“The demand is growing for alternatives to some of the traditional solutions,” said Johnson. “So we see it as an opportunity in the market that we are moving to address.”