B Medical Systems unveils plans for India expansion, signs partnership with Parekh Integrated Services
B Medical Systems, a Luxembourg based global leader of vaccine cold chain and medical refrigeration manufacturer has announced its multimillion-euro India expansion plan that includes a new manufacturing factory in the state of Gujarat and several partnerships, to provide world-class medically certified vaccine cold chain products to India that will help the country reinforce the critical cold chain needed to deliver COVID-19 vaccines.
“We are very excited and at the same time, honored to serve the vaccine cold chain demands of India. We look forward to bringing our state-of-the-art technology, advanced robotic technology, and medical vaccine cold chain products to India thereby making India not just the vaccine capital of the world, but also the vaccine cold chain capital. We cannot thank enough the support provided by the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Mr. Xavier Bettel, Minister of External Affairs Mr. S. Jaishankar and Joint Secretary Mr. Sandeep Chakravorty, Ambassador of India to Belgium, Luxembourg, & EU Mr. Santhosh Jha, and Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to India- Mr. Jean Claude Kugener’’
– Mr. Luc Provost, CEO of B Medical Systems.
“As an Indian, I feel extremely happy to be a part of this initiative. Thanks to the visionary approach shown by the two prime ministers, we were able to finalize our plans quickly and we will now be here in India to make products under the ‘Make In India’ initiative to support the govt in its efforts to efficiently and effectively deliver the COVID-19 vaccines across the country. Our vision is to have at least 80% of the components manufactured and assembled in India to start off with (in phase 1) and ramping to 100% end-to-end manufacturing in India by Phase II. All these products will adhere to ‘Make in India’ with no component sourced from China.’’
– Mr. Jesal Doshi, Deputy CEO of B Medical Systems.
As per the expansion plans announced by B Medical Systems, slated to start in Feb 2021, the 15M Euro phase I expansion includes the setting up of a manufacturing facility at Mundra Port in Gujarat. The plant is expected to generate employment of 100 jobs, with several hundred additional indirect employment opportunities in the immediate short term. Phase II of the expansion plans will have the entire rotomolding capabilities also commencing in India, making it a 100% end-to-end ‘Make in India’ product. The manufacturing facility in Mundra will be B Medical Systems’ first plant outside Luxembourg. This facility will manufacture products not just for the Indian market, but will also be serving the South East Asian and Eastern African markets. Mr. Jesal Doshi will be the CEO of Indian operations. There will also be an official product launch in Ahmedabad on the 1st of January 2021.
Announcing major partnership agreement
The company also announced a major partnership agreement as a part of its India expansion plans. B Medical Systems will be partnering with Parekh Integrated Services Pvt Ltd (PISPL), for the set up of the manufacturing plant, assembly, and the associated logistics. PISPL is a leading Logistics and Supply Chain Solutions provider providing high-quality services across storage & distribution services, freight forwarding, transportation, cold chain management solutions, etc to various sectors, especially Healthcare, Chemicals, Paints, Agri and Agri Chemicals, FMCG, etc.
B Medical Systems began the initial round of discussions after the virtual bi-lateral summit between India and Luxembourg on 19th of November, 2020,where Honorable Prime minister Mr. Xavier Bettel communicated to Honorable Prime minister Mr. Narendra Modi that B Medical Systems could help India, given the scale of COVD-19 immunization campaigns. This was followed by the visit of the senior leadership delegation of B Medical Systems including the CEO, Mr. Luc Provost, and Deputy CEO Mr. Jesal Doshi to India during the second week of December. Over the last two weeks, the team has had discussions with the central and state governments, pharmaceutical companies, and various private sector players across Telangana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.
