Clariant has officially opened its new Clariant Biotech Centre (CBC) at  Planegg near Munich. At a ceremony attended by the Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs, Media, Energy  Technology, Ilse Aigner, the key to the facility was symbolically handed over to CEO Hariolf Kottmann and the head of biotechnology André Koltermann.

The CBC covers 6,000 m2 and houses about 100 staff. Opening it, Clariant said, was prompted by an expansion of RD activities in industrial biotechnology, which has become a major plank for Clariant in the past ten years, especially since the acquisition of S?d-Chemie. It will be one of the company’s key global research facilities alongside the Clariant Innovation Centre in Frankfurt, which opened in late 2010. Bavaria itself and Greater Munich in particular is one of the major hubs in industrial biotechnology.

Separately, Clariant has formed an agreement to acquire part of the personal care portfolio of Indian firm Vivimed Labs, so as to strengthen the portfolio of its Indian subsidiary in that field. No specific details were disclosed about the products involved but Clariant said that the agreement would enable it to offer more in the areas of sun, skin, hair and oral care and anti-microbial preservatives, particularly the strongly growing sun protection market.