SCHOTT inaugurates new production facility at Gujarat plant

SCHOTT AG, a global leader in pharmaceutical glass manufacturing, is inaugurating its new glass tank facility in Jambusar, Gujarat following an investment of €21 million last year. The company forecasts a rapid growth trend for high quality glass material in the pharma industry, and has thus committed additional investments of €26 million for yet another tank facility in 2020.

Each of the new production facilities with a combined investment of €47 million, will double the capacity of SCHOTT Glass India’s manufacturing plant, allowing the group to produce its highly specialised FIOLAX tubing material for both domestic and export demands.

SCHOTT began the construction of its first new facility last year on the occasion of completing two decades of operations in India. The facility finished construction within a record time of one year, enabling employment of another 100 skilled local workforce. The new set-up brings together SCHOTT’s state-of-the-art technology and Indian ingenuity together to produce pharmaceutical packaging and tubing equipment in line with ‘Industry 4.0’ standards.

Talking about SCHOTT Glass India’s future plans, Managing Director, Georg Sparschuh shared, “While domestic market remains our key focus, our India plant also caters to the Asian market, thereby contributing to pharmaceutical industry exports and the Indian government’s vision of becoming a global pharmaceutical hub. SCHOTT also takes cognizance of the Indian Health Ministry’s initiative to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to its citizens. In this regard, we wish to be part of such initiatives by contributing to the pharmaceutical value chains and by providing high-quality glass products for pharma packaging, ensuring highest global safety standards.”

SCHOTT’s success story runs parallel to India’s phenomenal performance in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Rankings, where India jumped 14 places this year to be ranked 63rd out of 190 countries. “We are among the benefactors of the efforts made by the Government of India in creating an environment conducive for international businesses to invest and set up manufacturing facilities. We plan to continue investing in India as a part of Make in India, as we believe there is great potential in our Indian facilities becoming the hub for providing pharmaceutical equipment for global pharmaceutical supply chains as well. SCHOTT is also collaborating with Indian universities and training institutes to focus on skilling, preparing trainees to match the demands of future industry 4.0 requirements,” said Dr Patrick Markschläger, Executive Vice President, SCHOTT AG, Business Unit Tubing.

Dignitaries from the German Consulate, Mumbai, key partners and industry associations such as the CII also graced the inauguration of the new facility. On the occasion, Marja Einig – Deputy German Counsel commended the efforts and said, “SCHOTT is playing a pivotal role in giving a fillip to our efforts in strengthening the Indo-German partnership. Time and again, SCHOTT has showcased its commitment towards India. With its expanded operations in the country, it is catering to the needs of the Indian health industry and contributing to the Indian government’s initiatives such as Make in India and Pharma Vision 2020.”

SCHOTT’s India plant functions as a production hub for SCHOTT pharmaceutical tubing in Asia and produces the branded FIOLAX pharmaceutical tubing. FIOLAX glass exists since 1911 and provides an unprecedented quality standard in the industry through SCHOTT’s perfeXion process since 2017. perfeXion stands for the transition from statistical quality control to 100 per cent automated inspection of each individual FIOLAX tube – based on big data. Hence,