A new direction: Hans-Willem van Vliet

Hans-Willem van Vliet has been extremely busy since The CEO Magazine last spoke to him in 2021.

Back then, he was two years into his term as CTO of Sanner Group and had recently been appointed acting CEO. A Doctor in Mechanical Engineering, van Vliet had been hired to drive the German family-owned pharmaceutical packaging company – founded in 1894 as a manufacturer of cork stoppers but most famous for pioneering the desiccant cap – toward a future manufacturing medical devices.

Today, as CEO of Sanner Group, he’s wasted no time in driving this change forward and repositioning Sanner as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that can offer both development and manufacturing services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.

Van Vliet explains that the company spotted a gap in serving customers wanting smaller volumes, which the bigger CDMOs usually didn’t cater to.

"There are some big CDMO companies, but they are typically interested in the projects that bring in between US$20 million and US$50 million worth of revenue annually," he says. "Which means there’s a need for solutions for customers whose volumes are worth between US$5 and US$20 million."

For most in that bracket, the typical path is to split the process and engage with a contract development organization for design and a contract manufacturing organization for manufacturing.

"The disadvantage is that the design often isn’t well fitted to the manufacturing," he says. "We couldn’t do just the one without the other. We had to combine the two to really have an advantage. If you design with manufacturing in mind, the result is a design that is robust and can be manufactured easily."

Not only is the cost lower and the quality higher, but design cycles are eliminated, speeding up the time to market.

Transformation and going global

Although that was the strategy, van Vliet explains, actioning it was another story. First, the company needed a new facility in Germany with double the capacity.

"We moved into our existing facility in 1927, so it’s not as old as the company, but we’ve been there for almost 100 years, and it’s no longer state-of-the-art. It’s also full, with no space for any injection molding machines," he says.

"Then I said I needed more capacity in China, as well as a production footprint in America. Then I wanted a design house."

As he and the Sanner family sized up the cost of these changes, they concluded the investment was too much for the family to carry. Luckily, the Group found a new majority shareholder – GHO Capital, a London-based healthcare investment advisor – and the injection of funds it needed.

Over the past two years alone, Sanner has added an additional 4,000 square meters of production space in Kunshan, China, acquired a medical design and development company in North Carolina, United States called Gilero (including its 6,000 square meters of manufacturing space) and another in Cambridge, England, called Springboard.

In September, it opened its new facilities in Bensheim, Germany. Designed and managed by German industrial construction company Goldbeck, and backed by Deutsche Anglagen-Leasing, this new facility, just five kilometers down the road from its old site in Bensheim-Auerbach, has provided Sanner with a state-of-the-art, flexible injection molding and assembly hall to propel it into the future.

While van Vliet is taking a measured approach to the move, with the old headquarters still operational, he is particularly proud that the project not only stuck to its timetable, but it came in under budget by US$1 million. What’s also impressive is that such a shift has been achieved with just 820 employees.

"Suddenly, we’ve become a global player," he says.

And in his industry, the advantage lies in being a supplier that can provide products on a global scale.

"Now we are able to produce in all the relevant continents," van Vliet says.

The company has also become a second supplier to its own business.

"We are, of course, one company with one face toward the customer and one level of service and quality, but we still offer regional solutions," he says.

Materials will be sourced in each individual market to ensure a steady and dependable supply of raw materials.

Sanner 3.0

Although van Vliet has been busy leading growth and change, he has been aware of his limits and is cautious to take one step at a time. Now that the new site in Bensheim is up and running, he is slowly ramping up automation.

By mid-2025, he says that 20 automated guided vehicles will be operational on the Bensheim manufacturing floor, enabling around half of its existing production load to run automatically. He also knows it’s time to focus on AI.

"Last year, there was so much going on with our new sites and acquisitions that I didn’t want to do everything at the same time, and I postponed the entry of AI into the business somewhat on purpose," he says.

"This year it is a clear focus. I really want to use new technologies to ramp up efficiency in our facilities."

While building Sanner 3.0, as he describes it, has been at the forefront of his mandate, van Vliet hasn’t forgotten the roots of the company and the Sanner family’s longstanding commitment to sustainability.

"Our new site no longer uses gas or oil and is one of the greenest in the region," he explains.

Along with green walls and green fences, over 60 new, bee-friendly fruit trees have been planted. Photovoltaic cells that cover the roof will generate 1.5 gigawatts of electricity annually, enough to run 20 percent of its current facility or 500 households.

A touch that is a particular favorite of van Vliet’s, who hails from the Netherlands, are the windmills that will generate enough electricity when the wind is blowing to power two injection molding machines.

Van Vliet knows his demands over the past couple of years have been extensive and that he got exactly what he wanted, but his employees and customers were always the driving force.

"It’s important for our employees that they have their future here," he says. "It’s especially important for our customers that there is now a completely new service offering.

"Now they’ll see we have these great new facilities all over the world and want to deep dive and see what other projects we can do together."