Swedish wound-care manufacturer breaks ground on $135M expansion at Brunswick Landing

Photo / Jim Neuger At the Sept. 23 groundbreaking ceremony for the $135 million expansion of Mölnlycke Health Care’s factory at Brunswick Landing, from left, Leslie McDonnell, member of the company’s board of directors; U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine; Zlatko Rihter, CEO of Mölnlycke Health Care; Gov. Janet Mills.

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By Tina Fischer

Swedish wound care products manufacturer Mölnlycke Health Care will more than double its manufacturing and warehouse space at its factory in Brunswick, with a 78,000-square-foot expansion slated for completion in 2027.

Company executives hosted a groundbreaking on Tuesday for the $135 million project, joined by Gov. Janet Mills and U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.

King praised the company as one of the largest employers in Brunswick Landing, an industrial park operated by the Midcoast Regional Development Authority. He noted that every manufacturing job created in Maine adds 1.5 other jobs to the state's economy.

“This expansion is a significant investment in the people of Maine and a vote of confidence for Maine and for this region," he said.

The existing 64,000-square-foot, 12-year-old Brunswick factory makes bandages and wound dressings with a staff of 130. With the addition the company expects to add another 30 employees initially.

Mölnlycke makes a range of surgical and wound-care products used in hospitals and acute care facilities. Some of its specialized dressings are also sold directly to consumers at pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens. Some of its brands are Biogel, Mepilex and Mepitel.

Global reach

The Brunswick facility is one of two the company owns in Maine; the second is in Wiscasset. Mölnlycke is a 176-year-old global manufacturer of med-tech products, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, with U.S. headquarters in Atlanta and offices around the globe.

In addition to its Maine facilities, the company manufactures products in Indianapolis, and overseas in Finland, Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Mölnlycke in Maine

The 140-employee Wiscasset facility was the company’s first in Maine, opened in 2005. It primarily makes a variety of foam paddings that are turned into finished products in Brunswick.

There are no plans to consolidate manufacturing from Wiscasset into the expanded factory and warehouse space to be built at Brunswick Landing.

Wielding shovels at Tuesday’s event along with Mills and King was Mölnlycke President and CEO Zlatko Rihter; Dan Stevenson, executive director of Brunswick Landing; Kevin French, CEO and chairman at Scarborough-based Landry/French Construction, which will be handling the build; and Bradley Hodges, president of Portland-based SMRT Architects & Engineers, which is designing the plant.

Rihter noted that the U.S. is the company’s largest market, accounting for more than 30% of all sales.

He said that manufacturing in the U.S. aligns with the company’s mission of “localisation” — making products as close to the consumer as possible, to reduce its carbon impact and streamline logistics while maximizing the use of renewable energy.

Mills praised the company for using all American suppliers.

Mölnlycke is 99% owned by Swedish-based Investor AB, a publicly traded holding company that serves as the investment arm for the Scandinavian country's prominent Wallenberg family.