PROCESS EQUIPMENT
with over 45,000 m 2 of warehouse and shop space , plus a reglassing facility in Europe . All this is fairly typical of what it usually has .
“ Once we explain the totality of our enterprise , customers get an understanding of what we do that is way different to the image they may have had of three or four guys in a back yard with a few pieces of used equipment ,” Ron Gale says . Indeed , the company owns more plants , process systems and equipment than most of its customers .
Adding value
“ We add value to our customers by understanding their strategic initiatives over the short , medium and long term ,” adds Ross Gale . “ We aren ’ t charging a monthly fee to find potential acquisition targets like a consultant might . We go out there and find the facilities that make sense for our customers and bring those opportunities to them at the right place and the right time with compelling economics .”
For example , Ron Gale says , IPP had an Indian customer whose CEO knew it would want an ammonia plant in order to back-integrate into raw material at some point in three years ’ time . Within six months , he learned of a 1,500 tonnes / day KBR ammonia plant from an aborted project by Petrobras in Brazil . IPP worked with both Petrobras and Toyo Engineering , with Toyo reworking the contract , to set the plant up in India for much less than a complete new plant would have cost .
The company has done similar deals in the pharma-CDMO space . In one , it acquired an unwanted biologic drug substance facility on Lilly ’ s campus and sold it to a division of Mallinckrodt , which shipped it to Canada and was able to obtain a toll-processing contract within 14 months where a new-build would have taken four years . In another , it acquired a facility at AstraZeneca ’ s site in Colorado and sold it in situ to AGC Biologics .
New venture
Ahead of the SOCMA Show in Nashville in February , IPP announced that it was branching into a new venture , Gale Process Solutions ( GPS ). In response to customer demands for assets that it does not always have in stock or which are sold as soon as they come in , it will have new equipment built to keep in stock . This includes various sizes of stainless steel and Hastelloy reactors , plus and new glass-lined reactors from its long-time subsidiary Universal Glasteel Equipment ( UGE ).
These will be designed to the highest end in terms of temperature and pressure and polished inside and outside to cGMP standards , in order , as Ross Gale , puts it “ to catch nearly all applications ”. They will thus be applicable to both chemical and pharmaceutical customers .
The company does not regard itself as in competition with OEMs due to its stocking of equipment immediately available . Custom fabricated equipment will be in stock with typical delivery times of 12-20 weeks , as opposed to up to around twice as much in the industry in general . Delivery time , says Jan Gale , is customers ’ main issue , even ahead of price , “ and we are able to hit both of those needs ”.
By ordering equipment to keep in stock , IPP is also acquiring a significant proportion of manufacturers ’ shop time including all of their unused shop time . Where customers want a specific asset , it will also be able to insert that into its production queue ahead of any generic equipment GPS builds for its own stock .
Looking ahead , Ron Gale can see growing opportunities in the disposal of former Big Pharma sites to CDMOs as the outsourcing trend grows . Similarly , when small companies see their lead compounds fail in Phase III after they have built a plant , they will have to sell if off .
“ We can add a lot of value to the CDMOs , because they need to get into operations quickly and at reasonable cost ,” he says . “ We ’ ve done a lot of business with them already and we think we will do a lot more with them in the future .” ●
Ross Gale
VICE PRESIDENT
INTERNATIONAL PROCESS PLANTS k + 1 609 589 0627 J rossgale @ ippe . com j www . internationalprocessplants . com
IPP ’ s equipment storage facility and workshop at Eastover , South Carolina
72 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981