Top Investments of the Year 2024 in Saarland
Leading pharmaceutical service provider chooses Germany’s Saarland
Feb 27, 2025
Investors seeking a suitable industrial site in southwest Germany can do no better than visit Germany’s Saarland website. This allows them to quickly and easily find something suitable that fits their particular criteria: every site listed offers a profile as well an aerial photograph, map, and contact details for gwSaar, the Saarland Economic Promotion Corporation. In short: the ideal site for their project is just a click away at www.portal.germanys.saarland .
This is how the pharmaceutical service provider Vetter found the perfect site for its project in Saarland. Following extensive discussions and negotiations with the gwSaar team, this global family company from Ravensburg (Baden-Württemberg) has opted to move into a Saarlouis site that was previously occupied by Ford. Their chosen site offers fantastic conditions for expanding their production capacity. The company, which has been operating for more than 70 years, specialises in manufacturing complex medicines and is a successful contract manufacturer for the global pharmaceutical industry. Saarland is now offering it the space it needs to grow, as well as access to a pool of highly trained workers with industrial experience.
Clearing the way for an ‘industrial gem’
The seamless continued use of the Ford site in Saarlouis is now a done deal.
This also sees the gradual acquisition of the approximately 40-hectare former Ford site take effect. As a first step, Vetter is therefore securing the site’s undeveloped areas, since it is planning to build a new, additional pharmaceutical production site.
This is also good news for Saarland: Saarland’s Minister-President Anke Rehlinger is confident that ‘Vetter's successful acquisition of the land offers an opportunity to transform an abandoned site into a place of the future’.
Senator h.c. Udo J. Vetter, Chairman of the Advisory Board and member of the owner family, also sounded very satisfied. During the contract signing, he said: ‘We are laying the foundations for our family company’s successful future in Saarland. I am delighted that we have now met key requirements for pursuing our growth plans. This Saarland site is an industrial gem. I would particularly like to thank the state government and the gwSaar team for their committed, professional collaboration.’
About Vetter
As one of the world’s leading CDMOs (contract development and manufacturing organisations), this company offers comprehensive fill-and-finish services, from clinical development through to worldwide market launch for your product. This global specialist in manufacturing complex medicines is expanding its capacity so that it can work with its clients to supply even more people with the vital medication they need. The family company currently employs more than 6,600 staff across the globe and was able to generate a turnover of over a billion euros last year. www.vetter-pharma.com
Germany’s Saarland – Invest. Trade. Service.
Its location in the south-west corner of Germany means that the French and Luxembourgish borders are just a stone’s throw away, opening up routes to promptly serve the markets in southern and western Europe. Companies in this area benefit from ideal access to European road networks, as well as to rail, air and water routes.
Whether you need office premises, land or an industrial hall – gwSaar is your ideal implementation partner. Its team consistently understands the requirements involved, because as a project developer with a significant property portfolio of its own, it understands what really matters. It provides investors with comprehensive support, from first contact onwards. This all-inclusive service extends from the initial consultation right through to turnkey construction of the desired property, and beyond.
