ScotBio, a Scottish business making a natural blue colorant, has opened a new production facility in Lockerbie as the biotech expands its reach.
Over the past 4 months ScotBio has successfully tested its method for producing its natural food colourant in a 50,000 litre production tank at the Lockerbie facility.
The new facility complements the company’s existing R&D and head office site at BioCity outside of Glasgow.
Production capacity will increase further over the next 12 months with the addition of several more of the 50,000 litre vessels in operation at the site.
The company is also looking at several additional sites in Europe, the US and the Far East as part of its longer-term growth plans.
“A move to a larger facility was essential to allow us to increase production levels significantly and, importantly, to allow us to closely monitor the outcomes in a phased manner. The new facility in Lockerbie provides us with the space to do that and the ability to expand even further,” said Chief Operating Officer Polly Can Alstyne.
“Product development and R&D is continuing apace at our headquarters at BioCity and we are speaking with food manufacturers across the world who are keen to know more about the production of our phycocyanin and other functional food ingredients, and our plans for scaling up production levels.”
Tom Craig, Chairman of ScotBio, added: “This latest scale-up phase is essential as we look to build capacity, while identifying any challenges that the increase in production may produce.
“We also have an outstanding team of scientists who are working on additional proprietary IP to bring added value to the business.”
