Bioon.com Interview with Dr. Werner Schiebler of Infraserv Höchst

【生物谷编者按】2008年5月28日至30日，为期三天的2008中国国际生物技术和仪器设备博览会--Biotech China2008于上海国际展览中心成功举办。本届展会吸引了许多来自国内外知名的生物技术、分析、生化及实验室技术领域的领先企业竞相参与，参会企业纷纷展示了自身最新的技术和产品，亮点频现。生物谷作为Biotech China2008的首席合作媒体，设立了独享的新闻采访间，有幸对前来参展的13家国内外知名企业进行了现场专访。我们希望本期专访系列，有助于读者更深入、更全面地了解国内外生物技术产业的现状和发展前景。（更多企业专访请见biotech-china2008新闻专访/master/Special/BiotechInterview/Index.shtml）
May 29, 2008 - Biotech Shanghai

the left：Dr. Werner Schiebler

About Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG:

Infraserv GmbH & Co.Höchst KG, headquartered in Frankfurt Höchst , was spun off from the former Hoechst AG in 1998. Today, Infraserv does business as a site operator and industrial-services provider for chemicals and pharmaceuticals sites. Its prime objective is to help trailblazing companies in the process industry concentrate on their core business. Infraserv H?chst is a system provider who supplies products and services from several key areas: energies and utilities, waste disposal, environmental, safety and health services, facility management, as well as industrial park services and transport and vehicle services. The company comprises four subsidiaries: Infraserv Logistics, Infraserv’s logistics company; Provadis Partner für Bildung und Beratung GmbH, a provider of vocational, university and further education as well as consulting services and e-learning, Technion GmbH – a company planning and operating pilot plants for customers and Main Autoservice H?chst GmbH & Co. KG. The Infraserv H?chst Group employs approx. 2,700 people, and generated EUR 901 million in revenues in 2007.

Bioon.com: Can you please first introduce us to Infraserv?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: Absolutely, Infraserv is in what is called the infrastructural business - we are a service providing company. We are managing a large industrial park in Germany. We are managing that park now for over 90 costumers who are located on the site of the industrial park, from chemical businesses over to pharmaceutical businesses, biotech businesses as well as process engineering businesses which are all integrated in this one single industrial site. What it really means is, when you think about a business it has two main parts. One is the core expertise at the company, the product that you are actually producing. Let's say, if you are, for example, a chemical company and you are producing a polymer and you have a production process - that's your core of business. But you also need infrastructures around you, you need a building, energies, human resources, someone to take care of your waste, the necessary permits and everything else. That's what is called the secondary processes. The management company Infraserv stands for optimizing the secondary services in this industrial park, so that you as a company can concentrate in the primary business. So you get everything else you need, the infrastructure, the building, energies all at low cost and very efficient price and organization. So you can also be a more efficient organization. To give you an example from a different point of view, think about starting a production facility on your own, on a green field, where nobody is there yet. You have to invest much more money, for once you have to build the building, you have to get all the pipeline connections and all the energy supplies. You have to invest money and that money is sank in that production facility. Let's say, ten million of investment and then you can actually start production. Now, the ten million you invested are not there for anything else and you don't know what's going to happen from here down the line when you get your building. If you do that in an industrial park, you don't have to pay the ten million, cause either the building is already there or Infraserv will construct the building for you. We will ask you for an investment lease per month or year. But in the end you can give the whole thing back. You are more flexible in your finances because you do not have to sink the initial investment cost there. And as you said, maybe down the line, in five years, you do not know if your product is successful or not. If not successful, you just give it back to Infraserv. We will make sure the building can be used by others, so we have a building that is also good for our use. So that's a win-win situation for both sides.

Bioon.com: Besides China and Germany, do you work with any other countries?

Dr. Werner Schiebler: Yes, we do. We are looking not only in china but also in other countries for companies to come to Europe. We would say if you want the European market or the German market, or if you are in the pharmaceuticals or in the chemical business, you should think about Frankfurt, about Infraserv, this might be the best place for you to start. It could be a company from Russia, India, Korea. These are actually all countries where we have a special effort to recruit companies, besides that we are rather well known in Europe. So, we are part of a network of industrial sites in Europe, we know each other and sometimes we can even help direct companies to other sites. Sometimes, I know this is a company that is not optimally placed in the industrial park, so I might call a colleague and say- "Look! I have a company here that needs very large area not available in our industrials park, where should they go?". We can provide that kind of service. I think you get the idea of what the company is about. Its a service company but we do also have very concrete technical products that we can offer. For example, our waste disposal system. We have special technologies even with intellectual property around them. We have a way of treating water that is filled with organic waste. We add microbes to it, and ferment that waste so we can produce biogas. Then, from that biogas, we can produce energy and heat. The idea is to produce more energy in the form of heat out of your waste, because it means lower prices and more energy efficiently provided, even with saving on carbon dioxide. We also offer to license that kind of technology to whoever is interested.

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