The pharmaceutical company Krka has inaugurated a €20 million investment at its headquarters in Novo Mesto. Spanning 9,600 square metres, Pavilion 3 features a microbiology lab, informatics centre, training facilities and supply chain offices.

Occupying 40% of the new building, the microbiology lab will allow Krka to perform the analyses needed to meet the needs of the company's growing production, Emanuela Petković, the laboratory's head, said.

"Facilities where the microbiological analyses are performed have to be clean and meet all requirements of good production practice," Petković told the press.

The laboratory develops and validates its own analysis methods to test the microbiological quality of ingredients, final products and packaging, environment, equipment and staff.

"With the new building we gained bigger, prettier and more functional facilities and we met all the requirements of the experts," said Petković, adding that the lab's previous premises were becoming too small.

The new building will also house Krka's library, lecture halls and a restaurant.

Krka invested €131.2 million last year, of which €111.8 million in Slovenia. This year the company is planning to spend some €150 million on investments, mostly to increase and update production capabilities and infrastructure.

One of Slovenia's largest companies, Krka has been seeing a continuous growth. Last year it posted €1.81 billion in revenue and almost €314 million in net profit, up 5% and down 14%, respectively, on the year before. For the first half of this year it reported 30% higher net profit, at €222 million, as revenue rose 7% year-on-year to €985 million.