G-CON Manufacturing

What started with one Brazos Valley customer and a unique concept for the bio industry has blossomed into an international operation which remains firmly rooted in the heart of the Texas Triangle.

 

G-CON Manufacturing started in 2009 after founder David Shanahan was contacted by his alma mater, Texas A&M University, to participate in the design of their National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing. Shanahan shared his concept for mobile, prefabricated cleanrooms with A&M. Soon after, he landed the university as his first client.

 

G-CON calls its cleanrooms PODs. They come in numerous shapes, sizes and classifications. All are designed for pharmaceutical production, whether it be monoclonal antibodies, cell and gene therapies, vaccines, compounded drugs and other related production.

 

 

Instead of companies using large facilities with large price tags and large hurdles to adapt them, G-CON provides the prefabricated, flexible, movable and interconnectable spaces. It gives companies the chance to more easily alter their own playing fields. The “plug and play” environments can be arranged in a variety of ways. They feature their own air-handling units, fire suppression and a process control system. Electricity, water, steam and other utilities can be sent from host facilities to an entry point on the POD. Construction time is a fraction of what it would take on a standard facility.

 

G-CON’s distribution of their PODs now reaches internationally with customers in Asia and Europe. So much of a demand has been created that the company now has an additional manufacturing operation located in Kilkenny, Ireland.

 

With this demand, the company’s employee count has risen significantly since its beginning. In 2009, there were only eight employees. That number grew to 25 in 2015 and has reached 65 as of the start of 2019, with a projected additional 65 employees in the year to come. G-CON employs people in internal sales, engineering, project management, quality and commissioning control, and those skilled in HVAC, electrical and architectural systems. The company’s annual payroll is approximately $14 million.

 

 

Sid Backstrom, Vice President of Business Management for G-CON, shared the advantages of doing business in the Brazos Valley:

 

 

G-CON was named the 2018 recipient of the Brazos Valley Economic Development Corporation’s Launch Award. It honors an independent, privately-held corporation, proprietorship or partnership headquartered in Brazos County. The award recognizes the company's scale of operations since startup toward second-stage growth. In existence less than five years, the company must have demonstrated distinguished industry achievement of technology products and service that validates its potential. The company must have improved or transformed the region's marketplace in target industry sectors, including advanced manufacturing, agricultural sciences, biotech, engineering, R&D and professional services.