Business year 2022: BGS reports slight growth despite difficult general conditions
BGS Beta-Gamma-Service GmbH & Co. KG ended the year 2022 with a low single-digit increase in turnover. The volume growth normalised significantly in the business segment of radiation sterilization involving medical devices, pharmaceutical primary packaging material and implants. Only in the area of the sterilization of consumables for diagnostics was a slight decrease apparent due to the low demand for laboratory capacities. In the business segment radiation crosslinking, the company looks back on a mixed business year 2022. Whereas increases in the crosslinking of cables were recorded, BGS recorded a falling demand for pipes and other crosslinked products. The insufficient supply of raw material and disrupted supply chains of processors caused problems for the plastics industry as a whole.
“Unstable supply chains and increased energy prices have posed challenges for us in 2022,” comments managing director of BGS, Dr. Andreas Ostrowicki. “The tight supply of material and raw material supplies has resulted in bottlenecks in the production of products for many of our customers. This also affected us as commissioned provider of crosslinking and sterilization services. Despite the difficult general conditions for society as a whole, we nevertheless managed to get through the year quite well,” explains Ostrowicki.
A particular challenge in the field of radiation sterilization were the stricter official requirements for the transport of cobalt-60 sources.
“The necessary and punctual reloads of the gamma plants were not possible last year – this led to a substantial shortage of sterilization capacities and puts pressure on the entire medical device industry in Germany.”
In order to ensure a supply of crucial, sterile medical devices to the market, managing director Ostrowicki appeals to politicians to create the necessary general conditions and to give higher priority to the issue of sterilization of medical devices.
Looking ahead to the 2023 business year
Despite continually higher energy costs, managing director Ostrowicki believes his company is well prepared for the current business year. “We have undertaken in-house efforts to improve our process quality, save energy and further automate the plant technology,” explains Ostrowicki. “In addition, we expect to complete our planned construction at the headquarters in Wiehl around the middle of the year.” With this extension, BGS is creating around 1000 sqm of new space for logistics and production and is investing in the research and development work of the company with a new laboratory. The focus of the R&D activities is on the development of new crosslinkable materials, the recyclability of radiation crosslinked plastics as well as the use of radiation crosslinked biopolymers in the most diverse technical applications.