The new company that is calling the former Banner Pharmacaps plant home has brought roughly 30 former Banner employees onboard to help the plant gear up for production.
The new company that is calling the former Banner Pharmacaps plant home has brought roughly 30 former Banner employees onboard to help the plant gear up for production.
Calgary's Advanced Orthomolecular Research (AOR), a company that produces nutrition-based pharmaceuticals, finalized its purchase of Banner, which developed and manufactured soft gel pharmaceutical and nutritional products, in October.
The plant's new name is Olds SoftGels Ltd. and the facility will continue producing nutritional soft gel products.
Clark Sayer, AOR's general manager, said Olds SoftGels hired the former Banner employees for their experience in producing soft gel products. "They're the ones who know the business," he said, adding further hiring of former Banner employees is possible.
"As we add more production then we'll bring in more people, assuming they haven't found other positions. First choice will always be ex-Banner people."
Roughly 105 people worked at the Banner plant prior to the finalization of its sale.
Sayer said the plant's employers are working to "spool up production" at the facility either this week or next week as the plant has not been operational since the sale finalized.
Because Olds SoftGels is considered a new business, the company had to go through a number of "regulatory hurdles" before production could begin at the plant and right now plant staff are in the final stages of installing and "validating" equipment such as a newly installed water system, Sayer said.
He added he is hoping the plant will be in full production this year.
The plant's former owner, U.S.-based Patheon Inc., announced last March that it intended to close the plant by Oct. 31.
The sale of the plant to AOR was announced in September.
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