Renovation of Europe’s Largest Pilot Facility for Cell-Cultivated Products

Last month, Extracellular completed the renovation of Europe’s largest contract pilot facility dedicated to cell-cultured product production. Located in Bristol, UK, the facility currently operates bioreactors at 200L and 2,000L scale, with plans to increase total production capacity to 8,000L.

The facility was formerly an old microbrewery, which has been converted into a food-grade biotech site. Throughout the renovation, the original character of the building was preserved while upgrading it to meet modern biomanufacturing standards.

Unlike traditional biotech facilities built to pharmaceutical specifications, this food-grade approach offers substantial cost savings, around 95% less per square metre, enabling us to pass those savings directly on to our customers.

You’re probably thinking: a former brewery, now growing animal and plant cells?

We get that a lot. But yes, that’s exactly what we’re doing. What once brewed beer now grows cell cultivated food products, safely and efficiently, in a fully food-grade certified environment.

We know it might raise eyebrows. But let’s be clear: it's safe, food-grade certified, and purpose-built for this industry. Just because it’s not a sparkling pharma lab doesn’t mean it’s any less suitable.

We're rethinking biomanufacturing to be more practical, more affordable, and better suited to the needs of the food industry.