Industry Health Care Key people Heinz W. Große, CEO Headquarters Melsungen, Germany Number of employees 54,017 Type Aktiengesellschaft | Founder Julius Wilhelm Braun Website www.bbraun.com Revenue 5.43 billion EUR (2014) Founded 1839 | |
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CEO Heinz-Walter Große (Apr 2011–) Profiles | ||
B. Braun Melsungen AG is a German medical and pharmaceutical device company, which has offices and facilities in more than 50 countries. Its headquarters are located in the small town of Melsungen, in central Germany. The company was founded in 1839 and is still owned by the Braun family.
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History
The company originated in the year 1839 as a pharmacy in Melsungen, where it started to sell medical herbs by mail to customers in Germany.
Later, a manufacturing plant was built, where production of several medical products began, mainly surgical sutures. With this product, Braun started to supply to hospitals, and added in the following decades other product lines to its manufacturing program, like intravenous solutions, monitoring apparatus and other medical devices. In the 1960s Braun became highly specialised in plastics for pharmaceutical and medical uses, and developed the first plastic container for I. V. solutions in 1956, as well as many other products for patient care in hospitals.
As the company grew, manufacturing facilities were acquired or established in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech republic, the United States, Brazil and Malaysia. B. Braun acquired Aesculap AG, a Germany-based manufacturer of surgical instruments. B. Braun and its subsidiaries currently employ more than 54,000 people in more than 60 countries.
In 2009 the company was named the best company in Germany to work for.
Divisions
On an international level, B. Braun is separated into several divisions:
The United Kingdom headquarters is located in Chapeltown, just north of Sheffield, in South Yorkshire. The United States headquarters is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the subsidiary company is known as B. Braun Medical, Inc. It sells pharmaceutical and medical products.
Aesculap
B. Braun's Aesculap division, (/æsˈkliːp/), which includes Aesculap, Inc., its American unit, is a manufacturer of surgical equipment. It derives its name from Aesculapius, the Greek and Roman god of medicine and physicians. It manufactures a range of equipment including sutures, handheld surgical instruments, implants, and electrosurgical devices and powers systems. It also provides training to healthcare workers through its Aesculap Academy.
Aesculap was founded in 1867 in Tuttlingen, Germany by Gottfried Jetter. Aesculap, Inc., its American division, was founded in 1977 in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. Aesculap AG was incorporated into the B. Braun Group in 1998.