On Thursday, with Gov. Josh Shapiro in attendance, the company announced that it is making another major investment in its Hanover Township, Lehigh County, factory. B. Braun will finance nearly $20 million over the next three years and hire 200 workers to expand the medical and pharmaceutical device company’s product line. An additional $1.5 million is coming from state Department of Community and Economic Development.
“B. Braun is going to use this to produce more materials for infusion therapies, and increasingly, they’re going to develop ways to tackle cancer and autoimmune disorders,” Shapiro said after taking a tour of the plant. “This is really important stuff.”
B. Braun of America CEO Rob Albert reminded Shapiro that he was in the same building in 2022 when the company unveiled the 310,000-square-foot addition that was itself a $200 million investment.
“The investments we are making over the next three years, and the employees we will hire, will address the growing need for life-sustaining fusion products and therapy equipment across the country,” Albert said.
Albert said the company’s long history in the Valley made the decision to keep the expansion local an easy choice. Originally founded as Burron Medical Inc. in the 1950s, it was purchased, then absorbed, by German-based B. Braun in the 1990s.
“We are growing in the Lehigh Valley and in Pennsylvania because we have a long history here of finding skilled workers, high-quality suppliers, training partners and a business environment that enables us to compete and win in the marketplace,” said Albert, who has been with the company his entire career and took over as CEO in 2024. “The Lehigh Valley also has the quality of life and the culture we need to retain our talent. Our people love living and working here, and they love giving back.”
The investment means that B. Braun will be looking to hire more workers such as Tessa MacLean, who is an apprentice with the goal of being a process engineer. B. Braun is part of the Industrial Training and Education Consortium of the Lehigh Valley, a partnership of industry, education, government and community organizations to promote careers in advanced manufacturing.
MacLean is a third-generation industrial worker — her father is also a B. Braun employee and her grandfather worked for Bethlehem Steel.
“The ability to learn all these concepts in class and then to turn around and talk to my mentors about the actual functionality and the reason why we do all these things that we do,” she said, “and to also know in the back of my mind that if anything happens to any of my family, they are hooked up to my products that will save their lives. … This has been so surreal.”
Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., said workers such as MacLean are a reason the Valley remains a strong industrial region.
“I think Tessa captured the core of what makes the Lehigh Valley work,” he said. “Three generations committed to working hard, to making products, to learning skills, to committing to growing a manufacturing economy.”
Cunningham said that 70% of the jobs created in the Lehigh Valley are organic, or created locally, while 30% come in from other places.
“Two-thirds of our growth comes from companies doubling down on the Lehigh Valley, and they do it because of a workforce like here at B. Braun,” he said.
Shapiro salutes police
The governor’s appearance in the Lehigh Valley comes less than 24 hours after a man in York County shot five police officers, killing three of them, in one of the deadliest days for Pennsylvania police this century.
The officers were killed Wednesday while following up on a domestic-related investigation that began Tuesday. Police killed the gunman, who was identified as 24-year-old Matthew James Ruth, according to a law enforcement official.
“So from York County, here in the Lehigh Valley, I want all law enforcement to know that when we see them, we appreciate them,” Shapiro said in his opening remarks. “We’re going to continue to support them. I think the work they do makes days like today possible.
“Think about it, the days where we can be optimistic about our future, the days where we can think about building something. And it’s because we have people who are there on the front lines who are worried about our safety and well being,” Shapiro said.
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.
