Minneapolis Campus will be LEED-certified, Include World-Class R&D Facilities
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Denmark-based Coloplast [COLOb.DC, www.us.coloplast.com] will officially break ground March 4 on its new North American headquarters campus in Minneapolis. Coloplast develops intimate healthcare products and services to make life easier for people with deeply personal and private medical concerns.
The Coloplast campus will be located on a 5.4-acre site on West River Road, between West Broadway and Plymouth Avenues North. The $35 to $40 million campus will be LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and will be home to one of the company’s three global research-and-development Innovation Centers. Others are located in Denmark and France.
The headquarters campus site is the former home of Mentor Urology, which Coloplast acquired in 2006. Following the Mentor acquisition, Colopast reduced its U.S. operating sites from seven to four and relocated its headquarters from the Atlanta area to the Twin Cities. In addition to the Minneapolis headquarters campus, Coloplast in December opened an 85,000 square foot manufacturing center in the Twin Cities suburb of Vadnais Heights. The company also operates a manufacturing site in Mankato, Minn., and a distribution center in Marietta, Ga.
North America Seen as Global Growth Engine
The move is a major milestone for the company and serves as a clear signal that it plans to focus growth efforts on the U.S. marketplace. “Coloplast views the U.S. market as our global growth engine and believes there is tremendous opportunity for our businesses here,” said Jan Rolin Frederiksen, Coloplast’s president of U.S. sales and marketing. “The Americas, including North and South America, is currently our fastest growing global region.”
Coloplast’s organic sales growth for the region was 16 percent for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2007. Total growth for the Americas, including acquisitions, was 68 percent for the same period.
“Our strategy is to drive growth by leading the market through customer-focused product innovation,” said Rolin Frederiksen. “The Coloplast way of doing business revolves around listening and responding to our customers — end users, nurses and doctors. Great listening leads to great learning and drives our product development and improvement around the world.”
Urban Setting Central to Thriving Medical Technology Industry
The new corporate headquarters campus will be located on an existing brownfield site in northeast Minneapolis, overlooking the Mississippi River. The site will be one of the first major revitalization projects along this urban corridor. Developed for Coloplast by Minneapolis-based United Properties, in partnership with Kraus-Anderson and RSP Architects, the campus will include 178,000 square feet of space for approximately 500 employees in sales, marketing, and research and development. It will be ready for occupancy the first quarter of 2009.
“Minneapolis is the ideal choice for Coloplast’s new headquarters because of its thriving medical technology industry, world-class medical community and rich pool of talented employees,” said Rolin Frederiksen. “Beyond that, we were drawn to the natural beauty of this specific site and the opportunity to serve as a catalyst to other businesses to invest in the area.”
Campus, Buildings Designed To Attract, Retain Talent
Coloplast’s campus is designed — inside and out — to attract and retain a highly skilled base of employees. “This location will be home to hundreds of R&D, sales, marketing and administrative employees,” Rolin Frederiksen said. “The environment will be aligned to the nature of the team’s work. We also want to create a place where our end users, nurses and doctors feel comfortable coming to learn and work with us.”
The campus is oriented to emphasize the riverside location and will include extensive landscaping, water features, outdoor dining and seating spaces. The company also plans to provide opportunities for employees to become involved in river revitalization projects. Coloplast will partner with Minneapolis North High School to provide mentoring programs designed to educate and promote medical technology careers. The company also will establish the Coloplast Scholars program, which provides college-level internships to local students.
The campus will incorporate the company’s global building standards of energy efficiency and “green” features, which will quality if it for LEED-certification once completed. LEED-certification is a U.S. Green Building Council rating system to evaluate building projects, including base building elements like structure and building-level systems like HVAC. Key LEED elements that the Coloplast campus will incorporate include:
“The things that will make our U.S. campus LEED-certified can be found in nearly all Coloplast locations around the world,” said Rolin Frederiksen. “An investment in green technology and operating practices will pay for itself within two to three years and is something in which we can all take pride.”
The Coloplast campus will include a research-and-development Innovation Center, which will be one of the premier facilities in the state. A key feature will be an on-site cadaver research lab and training rooms for physicians and nurses that will be used to enhance existing products and facilitate new, innovative product solutions.
There are also a number of employee amenities incorporated into the design, including a full-service cafeteria, fitness center, outdoor courtyard and deck overlooking the river, and open workspaces to encourage team collaboration.
About Coloplast
Coloplast is a global leader in the development of intimate healthcare products and services to make life easier for people with deeply personal and private medical concerns. The company’s business areas include ostomy care, continence and urology care, and wound and skin care. Fifty years ago Coloplast developed the world’s first disposable ostomy bag and today it is highly regarded around the world for developing innovative, high-quality products. Key Coloplast brands include Assura, InterDry, SpeediCath, Biatain, Titan, Aris, Self Cath, Freedom Cath and SenSura. Coloplast is headquartered in Humlebaek, Denmark, with its U.S. subsidiary headquartered in Minneapolis. For more information about the company, visit us.coloplast.com.
