Founded in 1894 in Bensheim as a cork slicer, Sanner has become an international manufacturer of pharmaceutical primary packaging and medtech products. This year, Sanner is not only celebrating its 125th anniversary, the family-run company can also look back on an extremely successful business year and look forward to an exciting future.
Sanner develops and produces high-quality plastic packaging and components for pharmaceutical, medtech, diagnostics and healthcare products. The world’s leading manufacturer of desiccant closures and effervescent packaging solutions, Sanner produces two billion plastic parts each year for standard and customized packaging solutions. The company has 550 employees in Germany, China, Indonesia, India, Hungary, France and the US.
Sanner looks both back and into the future optimistically with sales of approximately 81 million euros, the company has achieved an extremely successful financial year 2018. “Despite the saturated and highly competitive market, we were able to continue growing in Europe,” said Dirk Mähr, CEO of Sanner GmbH.
Over the past three years, Sanner has achieved an increase in sales of over 30% in the US. In the same period, Sanner of India even doubled its turnover, while the rest of the Asian market, including China, recorded an increase of around 30%.
Investing in the future
“We expect global growth to remain stable in our anniversary year 2019. We remain very strongly positioned in our core desiccant packaging business. At the same time, we are also ideally equipped for sales growth in customer-specific solutions and medtech products. Topics such as connectivity, medication adherence and sustainability will play a major role for Sanner in the future,” Mähr said.
In the coming years, the company plans to invest between 30 and 40 million Euros in infrastructure, automation and product developments. For instance, Sanner is developing new products for inhalation and respiratory tract analysis aided by sensor technology. In parallel, the company is realizing customized DPIs (dry-powder inhalers), above all for the Asian market. The active packaging core business will be further intensified with the Atmo Guard System, while Sanner addresses sustainability by working on alternative plastic materials.
At the headquarters in Bensheim, investments in machine modernization were already made in 2016. The next step due this year is the implementation of a new ‘ME’ system as the basis for further digitization. In China, the construction of a second plant is planned for 2020. “For two years now, Sanner has been classified as a high-tech company with a state-of-the-art cleanroom. We must expand this position to be able to meet the planned growth and increasing demand,” says Ralf Tiemann, chief executive officer of Sanner of China.
Well equipped with technology and expertise
These developments and investments contribute to Sanner’s strategy. The company intends to maintain its position as the world market leader for desiccant packaging, while also meeting the demand of global customers with customers specific projects and products, especially in diagnostics and medtech. “We have set the course for the technological future. This enables us to meet even very complex customer requirements”, says Dirk Mähr. “Many good reasons to look optimistically into the future on the occasion of the 125th company anniversary.”
