Wichita Business Journal
December 30, 2014
Netherlands-based Fagron Sterile Services, which acquired Wichita’s JCB Laboratories in January, is planning a major expansion on the east side.
“This is going to be something very, very new and unfamiliar to Wichita,” says JCB president Brian Williamson.
Fagron is opening a 49,000-square-foot facility at 8710 and 8720 E. 34th St. North, which is between Webb and Rock roads north of Golf Warehouse.
Fagron, which is a FDA-registered outsourcing facility that produces sterile products for use in hospitals, doctors’ offices and other medical facilities, will provide the same products that JCB does out of its 8,000-square-foot space at 33rd Street North and Ridge Road.
The difference, though, is Williamson says the new facility will have “really, really cutting-edge, automated technology.”
“It was an opportunity to kind of be ahead of the curve,” he says.
Williamson and some partners founded JCB in 2002.
“We produce products that patients can’t administer to themselves.”
He says JCB and Fagron needed to expand with a redundant facility in case of a disaster.
“We needed to make sure if one facility went down, we had a plan to continue to service our customers.”
He says he expects to have a certificate of occupancy by July 1.
Ross Way of Anderson Management and Bree Kelley of J.P. Weigand & Sons handled the deal for the space.
The facility will have mostly the same management, but it’s a separate company.
The new space will have a maximum capacity of about 100 employees, and Williamson says the company will be hiring to that number over the next three years.
“It’s going to be a big win for Wichita.”