LuminUltra’s U.S. Move
FREDERICTON— LuminUltra Technologies Ltd., a Fredericton-based company, has opened a new headquarters in the United States.
While this is not LuminUltra’s first step into the US, the new, “state-of-the-art” facility combines two previous locations the company had in Maryland. Pat Whalen, chairman and CEO of the company, said the U.S. is LuminUltra’s largest market and contributes to around 60 percent of its total revenue.
“We’re now refocused with new facilities and significantly improved or upgraded team [and] new technologies,” said Whalen.
LuminUltra was founded in Fredericton in 1995 and continues to be globally headquartered in the city. When it was founded, the goal was to develop new technologies, techniques, and solutions for solving microbiological challenges in applied applications.
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Whalen said the company established its first U.S. location in 2018 when it acquired Instant Labs, giving it some DNA testing technology. Instant Labs was based at the BWI Tech Park campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The company continued to work from this location until the recent move to the new headquarters.
Whalen said in a way, this location acquired from Instant Labs was LuminUltra’s technology development centre of excellence. In 2020, LuminUltra developed a distribution centre that was about 10-to-15 minutes away from the technology development centre.
These two facilities have now been combined into one brand new, “world-class,” facility. The combined location allows employees from both the distribution side and the technology development side to work together under one roof.
“Basically, everything that you would need to be able to develop new diagnostic solutions faster and better and more reliably than we were able to before,” said Whalen.
As for the headquarters being located in Maryland, Whalen said it is the second largest biotech hub in North America.
“The talent pool is very rich. There’s a lot of amenities that would be needed by biotech companies that are very, very close to universities,” said Whalen. “Not to mention the transportation logistics are top notch.”
The area of the new headquarters location is nearby three international airports that are all within a half an hour drive and all the delivery couriers like FedEx and UPS have hubs nearby.
“You can’t beat the location from that perspective.”
One of the biggest benefits of creating a new centralized US headquarters for LuminUltra was being able to get all its employees under one roof. Whalen said this will lead to better culture by allowing them to collaborate in real-time, rather than over a phone or video call.
This Baltimore location will not affect the Canadian headquarters, which is still located on Fredericton’s south side. The company has its manufacturing centre of excellence on Fredericton’s northside, where all the base components that go into its test kits are made and sent in bulk to the Baltimore facility for distribution around the world.
After this business move, Whalen said the company’s next step is to continue doing what it has done for nearly three decades, which Whalen said is making products and solutions for its customers.
“It’s a market that we started operating and growing before it was really known as common knowledge that viruses and bacteria are everywhere around us.”
Whalen said to be able to control viruses and bacteria, they have to monitor them. As the pandemic has happened over the last couple of years, it brought awareness to these things that LuminUltra has already been doing.
Whalen said the new Baltimore location allows the company to accelerate its growth trajectory and access more opportunities in North America and Europe, which are its primary markets.
“Our real focus going forward after we’ve retooled and scaled things up is to put the pedal to the metal, so to speak.”
Jessica Saulnier is an intern for Huddle in Fredericton. Send her story tips and feedback: [email protected]