Capsugel, Morristown, NJ, is investing more than $25 million to increase production capacity and deliver further quality enhancements for its vegetarian capsules. The investment enables a combination of new production lines and technology upgrades at four manufacturing locations in Capsugel’s global network: Greenwood, SC; Puebla, Mexico; Colmar, France; and Sagamihara, Japan. These investments began in late 2014, and the majority of the funding is taking place in 2015.

“Consumers’ appetite for clean-label products is at an all-time high, and continuing to grow. This trend has contributed to a significant increase in demand for high-quality vegetarian capsules,” said Guido Driesen, president and CEO, Capsugel. “Capsugel has the world’s broadest and largest portfolio of vegetarian capsules for both the health and nutrition (H&N) and pharmaceutical segments. By continuing to invest in capacity and quality, we are further strengthening our ability to meet the growing demand we are seeing from customers around the world.”

Capsugel’s vegetarian portfolio includes Vcaps, Vcaps Plus, DRcaps and Plantcaps capsules, all of which are preservative-free, GMO-ingredient-free and gluten-free. The company is investing in all four products, with a particular emphasis on ramping up production of its premium Vcaps Plus vegetarian capsules, which deliver excellent performance on customers' filling machines, provide dynamic branding opportunities and may offer technical advantages for pharmaceutical product formulations.

“Given our size and scale, Capsugel has an unmatched ability to address global market demand by significantly expanding our production capacity,” said Erasmo Schutzer, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Capsugel. “We are committed to investing in the production capacity, technology and quality systems necessary to continue delivering high-quality, innovative solutions to our customers.”