Penn Pharmaceuticals provides a tonic

Nov 9 2007 by Aled Blake, Western Mail

PENN Pharmaceutical Services of Tredegar has announced half-year sales of £11.3m.

That represents a 47% increase on the same period in 2006, which the company says demonstrates a significant acceleration in growth since the recent MBO.

Penn, one of the UK’s leading providers of fully-integrated pharmaceutical outsourcing services, employs more than 200 people and operates from a 323,000 sq ft base in Tredegar.

It provides a variety of technically-demanding services to the pharmaceutical industry through three core divisions.

Finance director Lee Mainwaring said, “We are delighted that Penn continues to go from strength to strength and we plan to continue to grow the business by more than 20% year on year.

“Over the coming months, we anticipate further growth by introducing new business initiatives which include the production of high potency drugs and extending our temperature-controlled facilities to support our clinical trial supply and storage and distribution services.

“We have also recently opened a US office, as this is a key market for Penn.”

Earlier this month Penn launched a company in North America after its £67m management buyout.

Led by chief executive Peter George, the management bought the business from chairman Craig Rennie and the institutional shareholders, the Gresham Trust.

Under the terms of the deal, private equity firm LDC has invested £33m and will hold a significant majority stake in the business.

The company was established in the 1980s by Sir Roger Jones, the former chairman of the Welsh Development Agency.

It has appointed Paul Wituschek director of business development to drive the company’s growth in North America.