Michigan-based Ascential Technologies Opens Blaine Facility
A more than 70-year-old Michigan manufacturer has set up shop in a Twin Cities suburb. On Monday, Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Ascential Technologies held a ceremony to mark the opening of its new 100,000-square-foot medical and life sciences manufacturing facility in Blaine.
The global company is establishing a presence in the suburb as part of a wider reshoring initiatives. Ascential is joining the ranks of over 500 medical device companies currently located in the state – something that the company took into consideration when choosing Minnesota for its next facility, Ascential VP of marketing Stacie Barth said in an email. This is not Ascential’s first operation in the Minneapolis area.
The announcement comes on the heels of Minnesota’s designation as a federal “MedTech Hub” last month. “While [the new facility] is not a direct result of the recent MedTech designation, Ascential chose the region to expand its footprint specifically because the area attracts and enables the development of innovative medtech,” she said in an email to TCB.
The Blaine facility will specialize in developing custom manufacturing machinery and solutions designed specifically for medical and life science companies, Barth said. The facility employs 150 people in total. The domestic manufacturing industry is crucial for medical advancements as health care demands rise, said Ascential Medical and Life Sciences president Scott Watts.
“The opening of our world-class facility reaffirms our commitment to innovation, growth, and community development. We enable businesses to repatriate manufacturing capabilities, leading to the creation of jobs, economic revitalization, and a resurgence of American manufacturing,” he said in a press release.
The Ascential Medical & Life Sciences facility is unique in the medical world for the end-to-end research and development services it offers its clients, said Barth. By offering a cost effective option for local medical manufacturers, Ascential is working to “bring production back to high-growth areas like Minnesota and other parts of the US,” she said.”
Until September, Ascential Technologies was known as the Burke Porter Group. At the time, the company renamed and consolidated operations into three divisions, choosing to retain the Burke Porter banner for its transportation division. The company’s customer base includes 3M, Medtronic, Abbott, Boston Scientific, and more.
