Piramal Pharma Solutions, which manufactures pharmaceutical products, formally opened its third plant in Aurora last Thursday.
The event, which was attended by Mayor Tom Mrakas, Councillor Rachel Gilliland, and other local dignitaries, was a long time coming after ground for the factory expansion was first broken in 2019. But it’s just the beginning of an ever-growing chapter in the company’s local story.
“A great deal has changed in the world since we did our groundbreaking just prior to COVID, but it’s wonderful to see everyone out here [for a] nice opportunity to celebrate a wonderful achievement on behalf of Piramal, the Aurora site, and the Aurora community,” said Piramal executive vice-president Paolo Fiorino.
“The reactors we have installed here are of a larger capacity so they permit us to make larger batch sizes, serve our customer needs a little bit more effectively and a larger reactor stimulates better efficiency, [and] greater productivity.”
The new plant will allow Piramal to handle larger orders and, as a result, be able to welcome larger customers.
Despite some early technical challenges, the new plant is running at “almost 100 per cent capacity.”
“It didn’t take long for us to get to a steady state, but we’re trying to recoup a little bit of a backlog that was created with the initial delays,” he said. “We’re pleased with the project and we’re already looking forward to the next installation.”
The next installation will also happen on their Industrial Parkway North property.
The Aurora plant recently received approval for funding from their board of directors to begin master planning and concepts for their next phase “to really start thinking about what could be the long-range plan for this facility.”
“Hopefully in the next four to five months we will be in a position to have a better idea of what this place could look like in the future.”
At Thursday’s grand opening, Mayor Mrakas said it was an “exciting” day for the business community.
“This is very exciting not only for Piramal but the Town of Aurora,” he said. “Ultimately, the growth that has happened and the expansion within our town from an economic standpoint and we love to see businesses flourish in our community. I think Piramal is a great example of an extraordinary corporate citizen that has done so much in our community. By this expansion, it shows that we have a strong partnership and we will continue to see growth from Piramal.
“We’re excited and we’re happy to see you continue to grow and continue to be one of the top and premiere corporate citizens in our community.”
Addressing nearly 200 employees who had gathered for the formal ribbon cutting, this excitement for future growth was shared by Stuart Needleman, chief commercial officer for Piramal.
“This is just the first of a few more because there is a demand for the work that you do, so you guys should be proud of every single thing that you guys have been doing,” he said. “We’re a [on a] journey together and the journey is going to continue. There’s a huge demand for what we do and we’re dealing with space constraints, we’re dealing with other challenges and we’re all managing because we’re all working together for the common goal again: patients.”
From the perspective of Lisa Hausz, economic development officer for the Town of Aurora, last week’s Piramal expansion is a good example of the town “supporting local businesses and helping them to expand, grow and add more employees.”
“This one grew from 180 employees and we will end up with 250 by the time they finish hiring here, which is a huge coup for having expansion in the town – in particular in health care and health care-related [fields], which is one of our target sectors.”
Hausz added that her department is looking to underscore the importance of these health-care sector businesses to Aurora’s economy in the year ahead through the Emerging Aurora program, with one opportunity being a symposium bring together techpreneurs, with additional emphasis on the automotive, mobility and transportation sectors to follow.
Brock Weir is a federally funded Local Journalism Initiative reporter at The Auroran
