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rifols is one of the companies most involved globally in the fight against Covid-19. The multinational, headquartered in Sant Cugat del Vallès, has more than 25 initiatives underway focused on combating the coronavirus, and this very month it has already started a clinical trial, funded by the United States Government, to test the efficacy of an immunoglobulin it has developed (anti-SARS-CoV-2) for the neutralization of the virus.
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The Catalan blood derivatives company held its annual investor day yesterday, a day on which it shares its plans for the coming years with analysts and analyzes the evolution of its main business lines. In an unfavorable economic context worldwide as a result of the pandemic, the health sector stands out as one of the big winners, and Grifols, with a market capitalization of more than 15,600 million euros, is no exception to this trend.
In this regard, the company founded and controlled by the Grifols family announced yesterday that Covid does not stop its expansion plans; quite the opposite. The multinational has launched a plan that foresees practically doubling its plasma production and fractionation capacity by 2026, with the challenge of increasing from 15 million liters annually to 28 million liters, which represents an 86% increase. The company did not specify the amount of the investment it plans to make to achieve these objectives, although it recalled that the investment plan currently underway, 2018-2022, is endowed with 1,400 million euros, of which 68% is allocated to the Bioscience division, 17% to the corporate area, 11% to the Diagnostic division, and 4% to the hospital area.
Investments in Catalonia
One of the initiatives included in this plan to double production benefits Catalonia, as Grifols confirmed yesterday that it plans to build a new plant in the municipality of Lliçà de Vall. The company had already announced last May the purchase of a 47,274 square meter plot in Lliçà adjacent to the Polígon Industrial Llevant de Parets del Vallès, where Grifols opened its first factory in 1972. At that time, it explained that it planned to invest in a first phase 130 million euros in the construction of a new production plant that will foster the growth of the Bioscience division, specialized in the production of plasma-derived medicines.
Now, it has specified that the new Catalan factory will specialize in the immunoglobulin purification process, which will also require investments in production facilities located in Canada and Clayton (USA). The idea is to increase annual immunoglobulin production from 15 million liters to 26 million liters globally by 2026. Grifols will also allocate the new Lliçà complex to expand the production, research, and logistics capacity of the Diagnostics division, where it is a world leader in transfusion medicine.
"The acquisition of this land in Lliçà de Vall is part of our commitment to local investment and to generating qualified employment in the territory, where we have had a presence for almost 50 years," says Ricard Bronchud, global head of Grifols' production centers.
The investment plan will also benefit the Parets del Vallès production center to increase the processing capacity of albumin, another of the blood plasma proteins.
In parallel to this effort to launch new fractionation, purification, and plasma-derived medicine production plants, Grifols' great challenge focuses on multiplying blood donation centers, its main way of obtaining its basic raw material. Thanks to numerous acquisitions made in recent years, the company now has a network of around 320 plasma donation centers and yesterday announced that its goal is to reach 435 by 2025. Most of these centers are located in the United States ---fundamentally in Texas and Florida---, where legislation allows these types of donations to be remunerated.
Grifols, however, is diversifying its plasma supply presence and also has centers in Germany, Austria, and China. One of the company's challenges is to convince European Union countries to adopt a model similar to that of the US to address the current plasma shortage caused by the pandemic.
Grifols employs more than 24,000 workers worldwide, of whom 60% are women and 40% are men, with 98% permanent contracts and 80 different nationalities. According to the company, between 2015 and 2019 it has contributed to creating 52,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs, up to 148,000 jobs (55% more). Similarly, it estimates its global contribution to GDP between 2015 and 2019 at 36,000 million euros, a figure that includes its direct impact and also the indirect and induced impact. In 2019 alone, the impact is estimated at 8,500 million.
In 2019, Grifols invoiced 5,098.7 million euros, up 13.6%, and obtained a net profit of 625.1 million euros, with an increase of 4.8%.