Healthcaring à la France

It’s an impressive success story: three plastics processing companies in France, each a pioneer and reliable partner to the healthcare industry, have built up an excellent reputation over decades. Competent, innovative and efficient in the development and production of medical subcomponents and disposables for the pharmaceutical industry. Four years ago they formed the SGH Healthcaring Group: STI Plastics, ROVIPHARM and ESKISS Packaging.

The SGH Healthcaring Group portfolio includes product solutions in four main areas: Dosing (dosing syringes, measuring cups, measuring spoons, single doses, pipettes, pill dispensers), Respiratory (spacers, nasal aspirators), Diagnostics and Preanalytics (transport of biological samples). The fourth area – eHealth – includes applications supporting modern information and communication systems in patient treatment and care.

STI Plastics has been part of the SGH Healthcaring Group since its establishment in February 2018. Recognized by leading pharmaceutical giants as a developer and manufacturer of innovative medical devices, the company has been a key partner to the pharmaceutical industry for more than 30 years.

The STI Plastics production site has an injection molding workshop with fully automated machines, a finishing department with automated lines (decoration and assembly) and an ESD-protected manufacturing facility for the assembly of electronic devices. The industrial equipment undergoes daily preventive and corrective maintenance to ensure modern and high quality production. The site specializes in injection molding with in-mold labeling (IML) decoration for medical products, mono or bi-material devices, overmolding with individual visual inspection of components, electromedical devices and series production in different lengths.

The company is ISO 13485:2016 certified and has extended its certification to include the manufacturing, assembly and packaging of electromedical devices including TENS accessories in accordance with ISO 15378:2017 and ISO 14001:2015. It holds CE Marking 0459, which applies to medical devices and is in compliance with Directive 93/42/EC. The site is also an AEO (Authorized Economic Operator) for simplified customs, security and safety procedures.

Monsieur Empereur, SGH Healthcaring is the result of the merger of three companies that have built a strong reputation over 30 years. What are the benefits to each company from this alliance?

“SGH Healthcaring was founded on the recognition that unity is a source of strength and that multi-site production ensures security of supply. All of our customers are very large, the famous “big pharma.” Most of our suppliers are also big, especially in raw material. So if we want to be competitive and remain attractive, we also need to get bigger. SGH is our project to become one of the leading players in Europe in the field of medical plastic products. However, further acquisitions are currently on hold, thanks to very dynamic organic growth.”

The group was founded in 2018, relatively shortly after which the Corona pandemic occurred. How did Corona change your daily life?

“In the pandemic, the original market in pharma suffered tremendously, so did the group. However, it was a great opportunity for SGH to move into the diagnostic market, from which we now have two blue-chip customers.”

In June 2020, you bought the first Zhafir machines. That was in the first wave of the pandemic. Wasn’t it very brave to introduce a new machine series in such hectic times?

“We have known Haitian International for some time and have some colleagues and competitors equipped with these machines and we have received good feedback. Based on a very good offer from the French Haitian representative, we decided to test a few machines in our three plants.”

“Considering social, ethical and environmental integrity is essential.”

Jerome Empereur, CEO of SGH Healthcaring

The current political situation puts the energy issue in a new, critical position. What has been the importance of energy costs in your company so far, and what measures are you discussing to cushion further cost increases?

“You are right, energy is becoming a big issue and is one of the most important components of our costs. Although we save energy quite efficiently with modern equipment and machinery, we will initiate some research to save more energy. For example, with electric machine concepts. Nevertheless, we need to make some price increases at this time if we want to keep our profit margin and save our business model.”

How many hours/days do you produce per week?

“Five or six days, depending on the equipment. And soon seven days for the diagnostic workshop.”

How many injection molding machines are there in the group in total?

“Currently it more than 80 machines, of which 13 are now Zhafir Zeres series electric machines, with 40 to 360 tons. Most of them are equipped with a medical package and produce at Rovipharm in a clean room. All machines are fully automated.”

Which materials are processed, and in what quantities?

“In the medical field, we mainly use virgin materials, but there are also some applications with bioplastics. For example, in the area of packaging, for food supplements. In total, we get about 3,000 tons of raw material per year. All machines are integrated into an MES system and processes are monitored for efficiency across sites.”

The website says, “SGH Healthcaring is targeting sales of EUR 100 million to achieve the critical mass sought by our laboratory customers and to manage the structural costs associated with regulatory requirements.” Can you elaborate?

“I attach great importance to compliance with laws, regulations and general ethical principles. We believe that such a corporate culture is essential: we must be able to guarantee that we always act with integrity. We will therefore increase our sales – while at the same time demonstrating the clear will of the organization to incorporate social and environmental considerations into its decisions. But we will also consider the impact of its decisions and activities on society and the environment.”

• Founded: 2018
• Employees in the group: 230
• Current turnover/year: 40 million EUR.
• A total of 14,500 sqm of production facilities, two of which are ISO 13485, ISO 15378 and 14001 certified sites
• 4 injection molding plants, 2 of which produce in clean room ISO 8
• 3 production facilities for IML and further assembly
• 1 ESD-protected manufacturing for electronic device assembly