The Challenge
A US based company specializing in fermentation and contract fermentation, had an expansion project that required adding 3000 liters of bioproduction capacity.  Long lead times and high costs from Original Equipment Manufacturers made the project economics unfeasible and posed a real challenge to expansion. Phoenix Equipment offered several fermenters and fermentation systems to this company but nothing quite fit their needs. Phoenix Equipment didn’t stop there. We embarked on a search campaign, and within a short period of time, we opened discussions with another client that had a project cancellation. As a result of the cancellation, this client no longer required a bioreactor plant system that they had purchased and never installed from BioEngineering. The system was a designed for cell-based products and consisted of (2) 300 Liter seed vessels, (2) 800 Liter seed vessels, and (1) 3000 Liter Production vessel – all 316L Stainless Steel, all in original crates and in pristine condition. They had invested over $3,000,000 in the project and were eagerly looking to recoup some investment and move on.

The Solution
Phoenix Equipment sprang into action, securing the purchase of the assets through a competitive process, and delivered immediate liquidity to the seller for the unwanted assets. Over the next several weeks, we worked with our buyer to ensure that this system matched their technical requirements. In addition, we provided the buyer with ample time to line up financing on their side. Phoenix Equipment managed the process of removing the bioreactor assets from the seller’s site; as well as handling the loading, packing, securing and delivering of the equipment to the buyers site based on their schedule.

The Outcome

• Project cost: less than $1 million (total, including relocation and reinstallation)
• Time to operation: less than 3 months
• Equipment reuse: 100% of core assets
• Environmental impact: 100% lower material use compared to new build

The asset seller realized a partial return on their investment, obtaining immediate funding for other priorities; and our buyer, was able to obtain unused world class equipment at a fraction of the cost of new, and within weeks of reaching out to Phoenix Equipment.