Capsugel to Invest More Than $25m in its Vegetarian Capsule Portfolio

27 Mar 2015 --- Capsugel, which specializes in delivering innovative dosage forms and solutions, has announced that it is investing more than $25 million to increase production capacity and deliver further quality enhancements for its industry-leading vegetarian capsules.

The investment will enable a combination of new production lines and technology upgrades at four manufacturing locations in Capsugel’s global network: Greenwood, South Carolina, US; Puebla, Mexico; Colmar, France; and Sagamihara, Japan. These investments began in late 2014, and the majority of the funding is taking place in 2015.

Erasmo Schutzer, Sr. Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Capsugel told NutritionInsight: “As consumers today increasingly focus on living a healthy lifestyle, they are driving an increased demand for vegetarian products. For example, in the U.S., 38% of dietary supplement users in 2013 said that vegetarian is important when choosing a supplement, up from 26% in 2006. (Source: Natural Marketing Institute Supplements/OTC/Rx Database, 2013) In response, the industry is adapting its strategy. In Europe, for instance, supplements with a vegetarian claim grew 118% from 2012 to 2013. (Source: Innova Market Insights, 2014).”

“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 Chief Executive Officer, 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.”

For Schutzer, the bulk of the growth is coming from mature markets, but we are starting to see growth in certain emerging markets as well. “Vegetarian capsules still represent a small percentage of the overall capsule market, but we are seeing an increased number of new products being launched around the world that are using vegetarian capsules.”

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.

“We are continually investing in our polymer science R&D to further broaden and enhance our portfolio. The investments announced today complement that funding. In addition to increased capacity, these investments will drive further quality enhancements for our vegetarian portfolio. Capsugel has a long track record of raising the bar in terms of its quality leadership,” Schutzer says.

“Last year, for example, we launched our Coni-Snap Sigma Series capsules that have superior visual and print quality obtained through a combination of high-precision equipment, improved process technology and the introduction of online electronic inspection of every single capsule. With the investments we just announced, we plan to bring similar industry-leading levels of quality to vegetarian capsules. We will announce further details later in the year,” he concluded.

By Sonya Hook