Milestone for Nolato!

Nolato has signed a long-term cooperation agreement with a major existing customer to supply medical devices for drug admini­stration, including to support treatment of obesity and diabetes. The supply agreement will have no material impact on Nolato’s sales and profit over the next two years. At full-scale production, within a five-year period, it is estimated that this cooperation will generate annual sales in the region of SEK 700 million for Nolato. The cooperation will result in Nolato investing, from the second quarter of 2024, a total of around SEK 600 million in new manufacturing capacity by expanding existing premises, machinery and other equipment. Around one-fifth of the total amount will be invested during the current year.

“This cooperation marks a significant milestone for Nolato and is an endorsement of our business concept of supporting large, globally successful companies that demand high standards of precision, quality and security of supply. “At the same time it’s great to be helping to treat conditions that affect an increasing proportion of the world’s population,” said Christer Wahlquist, President and CEO.

Nolato has been working with the customer in question since 2000. 

Kristian Larsson, Sales & Project Director. 

How do you go about winning such a ­significant contract?

Nolato has been working with this customer for many years, which means we’ve learned a great deal about their expectations and needs. Perhaps more than anything from the times we haven’t been chosen as their supplier.” 

“Work on this particular contract began at the end of 2022, when we responded to an RFI, or Request for Information. “We invited the customer to our production facility in Hungary and had a constructive meeting there, which led to an actual request in late autumn and us submitting a tender in January 2023. “Over the next six months we had more meetings and the customer also inspected the facility several times to look at techniques, processes, management, capabilities, etc.”

“Key criteria for the customer ­included gaining clarity around our ability to quickly scale up volumes without putting quality and production efficiency at risk, ensuring we had critical mass in our facility to cope with the size of the project, that we had an open way of working and a willingness to collaborate, and that we had previous experience of major ramp-up projects.

“They were also extremely interested in our collaboration with universities, how we looked after our employees, how we ensured those working on the project had the right skills, and how we took on board learnings once the dust had settled and it was time to start delivering.

“I think we had the right answers in these areas; we were able to demonstrate our competence and experience. But we were also very open about areas where we weren’t really able to show previous experience. However, we could then refer them to One Nolato and the experience we have in other parts of the Group.

“We also had clear strategic objectives, and were able to share our thought processes in a practical way. We took the customer on a tour of the location of the planned facility extension: ‘This is where we would put the injection molding, the automation cells will be constructed here, this is how the logistics will work”.

“Initially there were eight suppliers competing for the contract, then we were down to five and in the end there were just two of us left. We submitted our final tender in December 2023, and then the process continued with negotiations, discussions, questions and so on. Then, finally, the contract was signed. 
“And that was when the real work ­started…” 

Hungary plant ­continues expansion

Mosonmagyaróvár, in western Hungary, around 20 km from the border with Austria and just off the motorway and railway between Vienna and Budapest, is the location of one Nolato’s largest units in Europe, employing almost 800 people. This is where Nolato develops and manufactures complex products in polymer materials for customers in both Medical Solutions and Engineered Solutions.

Nolato has had a presence in Hungary for 25 years and the Mosonmagyaróvár plant has been continually developed over that time. And now it’s time to expand once more. This time, around 7,000 square meters of production space are to be added for expansion within medical devices. Following the build-out, the unit will comprise a total area of roughly 40,000 square meters.