WISCASSET
Mölnlycke Health Care will not decide until mid-to-late October on its plans for expansion, a company official told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night.
James Detert, Mölnlycke’s business manager, said that the company wants “no aura of mystery” surrounding its decision whether to expand in Wiscasset or in Brunswick. Mölnlycke, which manufactures absorbent foam medical products, had planned a decision sometime this month.
Detert told the board that Wiscasset remains “the primary option.”
“We’re not trying to be evasive,” he said. “The town’s been great.”
The Sweden-based company purchased the Brennen Medical manufacturing operation in St. Paul, Minn., last year. Brennen is focused on the burn market, and that would be the basis of its Maine expansion.
Brennen also makes grafts made from human skin, silicon based products and oat glucan products. It’s a light manufacturing process that requires a “skilled interface,” company officials say.
The board has granted a tax increment finance (TIF) for Mölnlycke to add 32,000 square feet to its Rynel facility at Wiscasset Industrial Park. A $7 million expansion there would add 10 to 30 new jobs to the workforce of 70 there.
Should the company opt for Brunswick, it would build a new building across the street from its Brunswick Landing plant, which will begin operations soon.
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