In the first half of fiscal year 2017-2018, medical technology company Ypsomed (Burgdorf / Switzerland; www.ypsomed.com) invested CHF 26.4m (EUR 22.6m) – predominantly in capacity expansions. According to the manufacturer of diabetes care and delivery systems, CHF 6m was invested in the construction of a competence centre for injection moulding tools, an extended laboratory, a technical testing centre as well as new offices at two Swiss sites (in Burgdorf and Solothurn).

A further CHF 5m was spent on expanding production capacity for the pen and autoinjector platforms. Approximately CHF 10m were spent on extending the production facilities in Burgdorf and Solothurn, and for the in-depth planning of a new production site in Germany. In the northeastern city of Schwerin, production of injection and infusion systems as well as infusion sets for insulin pumps is scheduled to start in the first half of 2019.

In H1, company sales increased by 15.1% to CHF 213.4m (H1 2016: CHF 185.4m), but EBIT deteriorated to CHF 26.9m (H1 2016: CHF 28.1m), with a decline in the EBIT margin to 12.6% (H1 2016: 15.2%). Geographic expansion into new markets (Australia, Spain, Belgium and Poland), the cost of launching new products and the installation and commissioning of additional machines and automated equipment for pen and autoinjector platforms caused additional one-off costs, the company explained. In addition to Switzerland, the group has production sites in Tábor / Czech Republic, and is active in contract manufacturing in Mexico and China.