Sartorius Stedim Biotech expands French site to meet demand for single-use bioprocessing
Sartorius Stedim Biotech has completed a multi-year expansion project at its Aubagne, France headquarters, significantly increasing its manufacturing and R&D capacities for single-use bioprocessing technologies.
The project, launched in 2021, nearly doubled cleanroom space to 9,000 square meters and introduced automated production lines for 2D and 3D single-use bags, used in cell culture and fluid handling in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
The company also opened a new automated logistics facility featuring a 12,000-square-meter high-bay warehouse. The warehouse uses autonomous forklifts and mobile robots in a Goods-To-Person model to improve raw material handling and efficiency. Full operations are expected by fall 2025. The site is certified with ISCC Plus and ISO 14001, reflecting efforts to reduce reliance on fossil-based plastics and lower environmental impact.
A new 1,900-square-meter cross-functional lab space was added to support product development, customer demonstrations, and training. Operational since early 2024, the lab focuses on fluid management and cell culture technologies and is designed to foster collaboration between internal teams and external partners.
Additional upgrades include a modern office building with a showroom, conference center, and employee amenities. The overall site footprint has quadrupled to 90,000 square meters since 2020, earning HQE Excellent and BiodiverCity certifications. Sartorius now employs over 1,100 people in Aubagne and approximately 1,400 across seven sites in France.
Sartorius Stedim Biotech is the French sub-group of pharma and lab equipment company Sartorius, which announced in April that it achieved significant profitable growth in the first quarter of 2025, with net profit jumping 21.4% and sales revenue increasing 7.7% in Q1 on a reported basis. Sartorius credited the strong start to the year to a nearly 10% revenue increase in the quarter for its Bioprocess Solutions division, which supports the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals.