Contact lens manufacturer CooperVision has announced a multi-year investment plan in Puerto Rico. The company aims to establish a global manufacturing site in Ponce and enlarge its production facilities in Juana Diaz.
Rolando Torres, executive vice president of global operations, said: “Our $500 million investment signals a commitment to customers, to our 2,000 local employees who are part of the great CooperVision family, and especially to the people of Puerto Rico, where we have operated and prospered since 1984.
“The planned investments represent a significant expansion of our global manufacturing footprint and continued positive impact on the island’s economy.”
The firm is acquiring the former facilities of Roche Diagnostics in Ponce, developing a 115,000 square foot hub for manufacturing soft contacts, including MiSight 1 day lenses for global distribution.
Around $100 million of the total investment will be spent on the 14 acre site. It is expected to employ 400 people in its initial operating phase. MiSight 1 day is the only soft contact lens approved by the US FDA and China NMPA to slow the progression of myopia in children aged 8-12 at the start of treatment.
In Juana Diaz the company will convert a 22,000-square-foot warehouse to production use, installing new, high-volume, automated contact lens manufacturing cells. A second scheme will add 120,000 square feet to the current manufacturing floor. The third project on this site expands CooperVision’s main building by 100,000 square feet for warehousing and new packaging lines.
CooperVision also operates major manufacturing centres in the UK, other areas of the US, Costa Rica and Hungary.