BD to move plastic tube business

BD (Franklin Lakes, New Jersey) says that a $25 million expansion will add 100 jobs at the Durham, North Carolina, manufacturing plant where BD makes plastic laboratory pipettes and flasks for drug research. Over the next two years, BD said it will build a 50,000 square-foot addition to the plant that now covers 190,000 square feet and employs 285 at the 120-acre campus in Treyburn Industrial Park north of Durham.

BD, which currently makes plastic lab tubes at its plant in Canaan, Connecticut, plans to move the tube production line to Treyburn.

BD's labware unit, which employs about 700 worldwide, could have consolidated production of flasks, pipettes and tubes at a plant in Plymouth, England, said William Kozy, BD executive VP.