It’s Just business: manufacturing moves from AbbVie, Novartis, Kelvin Group and more

The business of manufacturing never stops. Industrial companies merge, invest and strategically expand to keep competitive, even under adverse business conditions. Read on for more details on five such recent business actions made by industrial and manufacturing companies, including refrigerator consolidation, more biopharmaceutical investment, and a new owner for a website dedicated to reliability engineering.

Verdant Specialty Solutions announced January 2 it had closed on a purchase of Lubrizol’s Elmendorf manufacturing site. Verdant, a Korean chemicals manufacturer and part of the Samyang group, noted in a company statement the site gives it access to a research and development lab, as well as enough space to scale its chemicals business.  Verdant CEO Todd Nelmark said the purchase will help the Korean company’s strategy to expand in the United States.

Nineteen Group, an events and media company, announced recently it had acquired Reliabilityweb, a global community aimed at reliability and maintenance engineering. In a company statement, Nineteen Group said the move added to the media company’s portfolio catering to manufacturing, and manufacturing in the United States specifically. Terrence O’Hanlon, who founded the site and organized events based on reliability and maintenance, said the site’s new owner would “safeguard” it. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Kelvin Group announced January 7 that it had agreed to acquire PermaCold Engineering, Inc. for an undisclosed sum. In a statement, Kelvin CEO Harry Gray said the purchase will augment the company’s long-term strategy to enter the Pacific Northwest market and add PermaCold’s technical expertise to his own company. Both companies are specialized in commercial and industrial refrigeration.

Abbvie announced January 12 it had purchased a medical device factory in Tempe, Arizona from West Pharmaceutical Services for $175 million. In a company statement, Abbvie said it planned to hire about 200 employees at the site, which will add the factory’s 3.5 mL on-body injector production operations to Abbvie’s immunology and neuroscience segments.

Novartis announced January 9 it would build a fourth radioligand therapy manufacturing factory in Winter Park, Florida. According to a company statement, the facility will be part of the company’s push to invest $23 billion in United States manufacturing: The actual cost of the planned factory was not disclosed. Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said the expansion would improve the speed and reliability for deploying radioligand cancer treatments in the United States.