BIOLAN inaugurates its new facilities on the Zamudio/Derio Campus of the Euskadi Technology Park

The third building of the world’s leading biotechnology company in biosensorics applied to the food and health sector has been inaugurated, almost tripling its space as a reflection of its growth and consolidation in the sector.

The event was attended by the Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu, accompanied by the Regional Minister for Economic Development and Infrastructures, Arantxa Tapia, the Regional Minister for Health, Gotzone Sagardui, the Provincial Councillor of Bizkaia, Elixabete Etxanobe, the Regional Councillor for Economic Promotion of Bizkaia, Ainara Basurko, the Mayor of Derio, Esther Apraiz and the Deputy Mayor of Zamudio, Itziar Landeta.

In an event with numerous institutional representatives, headed by the Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu, together with representatives from the business, financial, scientific-technological and innovation sectors, etc., a visit was made to the new BIOLAN building, adjacent to the facilities that the company has already occupied on the Zamudio/Derio Campus of the Euskadi Technology Park for the last 10 years.

It is a 2,600 m2 building, which extends the total surface area to nearly 4,000 m2. Work began in July 2022, and was completed at the end of 2023, with an investment of approximately 4.5 million euros, which has enabled the space to be almost tripled in order to house a growing workforce, incorporate new production equipment, new laboratories, dimension work units, expand new business lines, etc.

The new building has two underground floors for warehousing and production and three more above ground. In this way, the new building has a greater automation component that will improve the manufacturing processes and provide more space for the R&D, Product Development, Software and Systems areas, which will reinforce research, the launch of new developments and new areas, as well as the strengthening of the current ones.

These new facilities have been built with the well-being of the BIOLAN team in mind, trying to make the workplace a place where people can develop professionally, while at the same time seeing that other needs are also attended to, such as those related to sport, health, etc.

The event included a tour of all the different work areas of the new building, where Asier Albizu, General Manager of BIOLAN, focused his explanation on the activities to be carried out in the new facilities, and their new capabilities and functionalities, which will facilitate the development and expansion of BIOLAN.

In addition, Asier Albizu shared with the Lehendakari and other attendees at the event, the current situation of BIOLAN’s business, as well as the key points in its growth. He also revealed the new challenges facing BIOLAN in the near future.

BIOLAN is a technology-based and innovative business group that develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic and analytical solutions based on enzymatic biosensors, immunochromatographic tests and genetic and molecular diagnostics for the detection of parameters related to food quality and safety, as well as health.

The group is present in more than 60 countries and exports 87% of its sales, with its own sales offices in Spain, France, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Morocco, in addition to the Zamudio office, from where the European and North American markets are addressed. BIOLAN MICROBIOSENSORES focuses its activity on the food sector, with the main food subsectors being fishing, crustaceans, dairy products and wine. But it is also active in the health sector with its companies BIOLAN HEALTH and DNA DATA, with innovative products and services of high added value.

Innovation has been innate and continuous at BIOLAN since its creation, and in its 15 years of experience it has been able to launch its own unique and disruptive products for the control of parameters such as histamine, sulphite, lactose, gluconic acid, malic acid, etc., related to food quality and safety, offering the sector fast, precise, simple and competitive tools. And it doesn’t end here, in a few months, a new solution for measuring salt will be launched on the market, followed by new solutions for measuring nitrites and nitrates in food products, always in continuous expansion of the product catalogue, which also achieve the highest international certifications such as those granted by the AOAC, even being considered as an official method, in the case of the sulphite and lactose tests.

A turning point came in 2020 with the market launch of the new generation of products equipped with connectivity to a digital platform, also developed in-house, BIOLANglobal, which allows the management and processing of data and greater traceability of information, enabling intelligent and comprehensive analytical monitoring and thus helping the digital transformation of the food industry, as well as offering its customers the possibility of creating ad-hoc projects that help to achieve complete traceability. This new product line is having a very successful reception in the food sector, and has underpinned the increase in sales and business as a whole. It has also served as a launch pad for the sizing of the Software and Systems area, with a view to artificial intelligence applications for the sectors in which BIOLAN operates.

In the health sector, through its subsidiary BIOLAN HEALTH, BIOLAN HEALTH has been playing an important role in the sector in recent years, launching a Point of Care device for the quick and easy diagnosis of lactose intolerance, OSAXYL, as well as developing and marketing the COVID-19 antigen and seroprevalence tests, thus contributing our grain of sand to the management of the pandemic. BIOLAN HEALTH continues to work on the search for cost-efficient solutions for the monitoring and detection of parameters of interest that help to make effective decisions in clinical diagnosis, as well as in the prevention and/or monitoring of patients and therapies, and this has led it to assume a leading role in the Basque health industry sector, currently chairing the Basque Health Cluster.

At the beginning of 2023, the BIOLAN group integrated the biomedical company DNA Data into its business group, reinforcing with this operation its leadership in the field of health diagnostics. DNA Data is a biomedical company specialising in genetic and molecular biology studies for the diagnosis of diseases of genetic origin. This January marks one year since the completion of the capital acquisition that began in July 2021 and which has allowed the BIOLAN group to expand and diversify its business.

The growth experienced by BIOLAN, with an average 18% increase in annual turnover over the last 7 years, has been underpinned by the investment effort made in recent years, which has allowed the start-up of successive facilities, and the strengthening of the professional team that makes it up, which has grown by 15% in the last 5 years, currently reaching 100 people.

The company’s own investment, thanks to the firm commitment of the shareholders, has been supported by different financial agents and the public administration, making it possible to size the company according to the evolution of business opportunities. Specifically, the investment plan for the construction of the new facilities inaugurated today has received significant financial support from the GAUZATU and BILAKATU programmes of the Basque Government and the 3i Programme of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, in addition to the OSASUNBERRI programme, a project to strengthen the health industry sector in the Basque Country with the aim of building a close, efficient and comprehensive health sector, based on the Km 0 philosophy.

Without losing sight of the environment and the ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship and business support, which have favoured the growth and consolidation of BIOLAN, this group will continue working to continue with its business positioning at a global level, without forgetting its commitment to society, generating wealth and employment, committing to sustainability and contributing to the SDGs from all possible aspects.