High-tech production facility for Fujifilm

Cell culture media are powders and liquids used by pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines. Their production demands extremely high standards for the surrounding environment. Fujifilm selected Kuijpers to build a cleanroom (1,725 square meters) based on the box-in-box principle. This means the cleanroom stands completely independently within the building shell that Fujifilm is renovating itself.

At the end of 2019, Kuijpers became the main contractor for the project. They assembled a multidisciplinary team including specialists in controlled environments, building automation, security systems, electrical and mechanical engineering, and air treatment. Partner Brecon Group, a specialist in cleanroom construction systems, also joined under Kuijpers’ leadership. The project was approached integrally in a construction team format. Kuijpers translated the existing basic design into a functional design that meets the extremely high standards required for cleanrooms.

“With a tight schedule and a design that wasn’t fully finalized, we made extensive use of Kuijpers’ knowledge, experience, and flexibility from day one,” recalls John Manteleers, Manager Engineering & IT at Fujifilm Tilburg. That proved to be highly valuable, especially in terms of organization. Eric Vogels, Kuijpers Project Director, adds: “Due to the short lead time, we decided to start ordering materials during the design phase. That’s not without risks, of course, but thanks to our experience, we felt confident doing it.” The long delivery times and even completely halted supplies caused by the coronavirus crisis were also a reason to start working on the order lists early.

Good organization on the construction site was essential—not only to keep the project on track but also to safeguard the health and safety of the workers. The hundred people on site each day had to maintain a distance of one and a half meters. Together with Fujifilm, Kuijpers closely managed the project under these conditions. As a result, there were no major delays, and after a year of designing and building, the project was nearing completion by the end of 2020.

And that’s exactly what Sander Vermeulen, Director Business Development at Fujifilm, had hoped for. “The general public knows us for our photo rolls. But we’ve been active in the healthcare and biopharmaceutical sectors for years. We already have cell culture media production sites in Japan and the United States. We’re seeing enormous pressure on the production capacity for pharmaceutical ingredients worldwide, partly due to the recent development of coronavirus vaccines. From Tilburg, we’ll be serving the European market. Our goal: to be among the top cell culture media factories in Europe. That naturally requires a top-tier production facility—and we’ve now built that, together with Kuijpers.”