Gilero, Ernie Green Industries end partnership

Ernie Green Industries Inc. and Gilero LLC have ended their equity partnership of almost five years called EG-Gilero.

The partnership formed in January 2015 to help Morrisville, N.C.-based Gilero, which opened in 2002 as an engineering design firm of medical devices, expand its manufacturing capabilities.

Ernie Green Industries has 13 manufacturing facilities worldwide. Founded in 1981 as a Tier 1 auto supplier, the company evolved to also serve the medical device, consumer, energy and industrial markets.

With an estimated $260 million in annual injection molding sales, Columbus, Ohio-based Ernie Green Industries ranks 37th among North American injection molders, according to Plastics News' latest ranking.

The partnership let Gilero, formerly Gilero Biomedical, leverage its design, development and regulatory capabilities with Ernie Green Industries' tooling, contract manufacturing and supply chain management capabilities.

Three other businesses also were involved in the plan to offer the medical market a one-stop shop from design to molding, packaging and distribution. The business activities of device incubator Infield Medical of Durham, N.C, is now a part of Gilero known as Gilero Ventures, while medical components manufacturer Ennovea of Austell, Ga., and ValTech Holdings of Rochester, N.Y., are still part of Ernie Green Industries.

After almost five years of the business alignment, Gilero is ready to become a stand-alone company.

"Gilero has since been able to establish our own injection molding, assembly and manufacturing capabilities, bringing even more value to our customer base in the medical and pharmaceutical industries," Clayton Roberts, Gilero's director of business development, told Plastics News.

Roberts pointed to a $4 million investment in a 40,000-square-foot industrial space in Pittsboro, N.C., for manufacturing, assembly, kitting and packaging medical and drug delivery devices. The site will create 60 jobs when it opens by January.

"This allows us to directly and more closely manage our own manufacturing operations," Roberts said.

Gilero is growing in other ways, he added. The company will open a design center in Carlsbad, Calif., by the end of the month and has plans for design and development offices in New Jersey, Chicago and Ireland.

Gilero also is selecting the site for a manufacturing facility in Mexico and it has an expanding joint venture in China.

"Our Shenzhen operations are moving to a new location 10 minutes from our current site and will be fully completed in December 2019," Galero CEO Ted Mosler told Plastics News. "We are increasing our capacity to build molds as well as larger-tonnage machines in our clean rooms, including two-shot molding. We are also building out to prepare for CFDA [Chinese Food and Drug Administration] registration."

Gilero and Ernie Green Industries officials said they are committed to a smooth transition and will maintain a business relationship.

"While we look forward to continuing to work with Gilero, we're also very excited about the future of our medical device manufacturing business and providing our customers complete solutions for highly challenging applications," Ernie Green Industries CEO Vinc Ellerbrock said in a news release.

"We anticipate continuing to invest to sustain our growth through industry-leading innovations in our advanced engineering and tooling center, as well as specific areas of our molding operations," he added.

Ernie Green industries will now restructure its medical device and diagnostics businesses on a long-term basis, John Hoskins, chief commercial officer, told Plastics News.

"The decision to end the equity partnership was strategic for the company and opens up opportunities for us to innovate and grow our business," Hoskins said. "Specifically, it strengthens our position as a provider of end-to-end solutions ... for highly challenging medical applications, such as robotic surgery, surgical stapling and suturing, surgical access and surgical support."

Gilero, which started out with an engineering focus on single-use medical devices, has expanded over the years to design and manufacture a variety of medical devices, minimally invasive surgical tools and complex electromechanical drug delivery systems. The company also offers design and user testing, package engineering, prototyping, testing, regulatory support and contract manufacturing, including mold tooling and injection molding.

"It's been a pleasure to grow our business alongside EG Industries," Mosler said. "We're thrilled to be building and expanding our capabilities specific to the development and manufacturing of medical and drug delivery devices."