Drug boost
14 Mar 2014
Aesica boss Robert Hardy has grown his pharmaceutical company tenfold since acquiring a site from BASF ten years ago. He tells John McKenna the secrets of his success and how his company is able to compete globally with rivals in India and China.
Last month BASF chairman Kurt Bock told this magazine how he was prepared to move his company’s production facilities to whatever part of the world was cheapest to produce chemicals.
Unfortunately this approach has, on several occasions, meant closing UK plants, with BASF most recently shutting down its pigment plant in Paisley, Scotland, resulting in 141 job losses.
However, when global giants like BASF exit UK businesses, it isn’t always the end of the story.
Take the former BASF site in Cramlington, Northumberland, for example. The site has been producing chemicals for the pharmaceuticals industry since 1983, and was acquired by BASF in 1995 as part of the German firm’s takeover of the Boots Pharmaceuticals business.
In 2002 BASF began inviting potential buyers to Cramlington, which was by then the only facility remaining from its acquisition of Boots Pharmaceuticals, BASF having sold the rest of the business to Abbott Pharmaceuticals the previous year.
To read the full article, please click on the related files above.
