UPDATE TUESDAY: Purolite, a Bala Cynwyd-based multinational founded by brothers Don and Steve Brodie after Steve left New Jersey-based Sybron Chemical in 1981, has lately expanded its ion-exchange polymer resin beads business to supply biomedical therapy manufacturers, says Steve's son, Jacob, a vice president.
The company's beads have previously been used in water-purification and drug-manufacturing, among other industries. Purolite employs 1,000 worldwide, including 150 locally at its Bala Cynwyd office and Philadelphia plant at G and Erie Streets (near the old Progress Lighting factory), plus facilities in the United Kingdom, China and Eastern Europe.
As a family-owned company "we can afford to take a long-term view," Jacob Brodie told me. The company doesn't identify its corporate clients.
MONDAY: Purolite, a Bala Cynwyd company which develops and manufactures industrial resin beads in the U.S. and other countries, will construct "a new state-of-the-art facility" at its European research and development center in Llantrisant, Wales, the Welsh government's New York rep office said in a statement today.
Purolite invested $2.9 million "in new lab infrastructure and equipment in Llantrisant along with R&D support by the Welsh Government's SMARTCymru programme, backed by EU funds," according to Wales. Purolite collected $832,000 in government aid for expansion at the site. That public money "was crucial in helping secure the project for Wales, due to strong competition from Purolite's existing facilities in USA, China and Romania," the Wales government said in this statement.
"The new center will produce agarose resins used by pharmaceutical developers in the manufacture of modern medicines targeting the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and age-related diseases," the Wales statement added. Wales expects the plant to "create and safeguard" 55 jobs and generate $160 million in orders for Wales-based suppliers over the next five years, according to economy minister Edwina Hart.
Purolite has been in Wales since the 1980s, executive vice president Don Brodie said in a statement. "This grant will allow us to grow our high value manufacturing presence here in Wales."
The Wales government likes to celebrate links between ancient U.S. Welsh-American communities and industries back home, including last summer's investment by aircraft-parts maker Triumph Group, which is based in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, in expanding its own plant in the Deeside section of North Wales. Bala Cynwyd is in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, settled like Tredyffrin and much of southeastern Pennsylvania by late-1600s immigrants from Wales; it is named for two Welsh towns.