Lonza to shut sites in UK, North America
13 Jan 2010
Basel, Switzerland – Lonza is closing sites in sites at Wokingham, UK; Conshohocken (Riverside), Pennsylvania; and Shawinigan, Quebec, in an effort to strengthen its pharmaceuticals manufacturing and supply platform in Asia. The cost reduction move is in response to an acceleration in the economic pressures of the past 18 months, the Swiss group said 12 Jan.
The closures will take place in 2010 and affect 175 employees, according to a press statement. The move, it said, complement Lonza’s “existing platform in Nansha (CN) and is the response to customer needs for mature regulated products at competitive conditions in a new market segment … The total restructuring cost amount to approximately CHF140 million of which 75% account to restructuring activities in small molecules.”
The offices and warehouse in Wokingham is being closed as part of a streamlining initiative within the Lonza Bioscience supply chain. The activities will be transferred to Verviers, Belgium, which already supplies all other countries in Europe and, said Lonza, can handle orders from UK and Irish customers.
The Riverside plant will cease its activities in Q4 2010. Lonza said it is in contact with all Riverside customers to offer tailored solutions that will strengthen the supply security of their individual drug substances by transferring the projects into other operations within Lonza’s global network.
Lonza’s pilot-scale plant for the vitamin K3 activities in Shawinigan will cease its activities by the end of March 2010 after having completed the full technical development of this new, proprietary, environmentally friendly technology. The group said it would evaluate further opportunities to provide its customers with chromium-free vitamin K3 from another site in the future.
“The re-engineering project is a key element in our endeavour to bring Lonza back to a sustainable growth”, said CEO Stefan Borgas. “We will continue to drive this project throughout the year and we will see many initiatives rising from it.”
