Bausch & Lomb creates 125 jobs

Less than a year after it was on the verge of closing its Waterford manufacturing base and shedding 1,100 employees, contact lens giant Bausch & Lomb has announced the creation of 125 jobs in the city.

Workers’ acceptance of a cost-cutting deal, including pay cuts and almost 200 redundancies last summer allowed Bausch & Lomb stay open in Waterford.

Yesterday’s news of 125 positions over the coming years follows another boost last November when 50 jobs were confirmed.

The 175 posts will be in place by the end of 2017, after an investment of €75m in manufacturing capacity in Waterford, supported by IDA Ireland.

Planning permission has already been secured for a 10,4005sq metre building on a 17-acre site adjacent to the company’s existing base in the Waterford Business Park.

The construction phase will see 150 jobs being created over the next two years.

Bausch & Lomb’s Waterford general manager Damian Finn said the announcement was “a huge turnaround” for the 35-year-old plant and its workers. “It’s our biggest investment in the history of Bausch & Lomb in Waterford.

“The prime reason we’re making this investment today is because of the cost structures we have now in place.

“We are grateful to the Government for their support along the training and development which we will need in order to upskill our employees and upskill the new employees coming in.

“However, the prime reason for this investment is down to the employees of this company,” he said.

He confirmed there will be no restoration of cut wages to workers.

Meanwhile, up to 70 jobs losses have been announced at Elanco in Sligo.

The global animal health company, a division of Eli Lilly & Company, has been operating in Sligo since 1991 and has a workforce of 166 people there.

It has confirmed that as a part of a restructuring effort 60 to 70 jobs are to go at its vaccine manufacturing facility based at Finisklin Industrial Park in Sligo.