Company faces major challenge in selling plants

PFIZER has admitted it faces a tough task to sell off the three plants which it yesterday announced it was closing with a combined loss of more than 500 jobs.

As well as downsizing a number of other facilities, Pfizer wants to stop operating in eight of its sites globally by the end of 2015 and those include Loughbeg and Shanbally in Cork and its manufacturing facility in Dún Laoghaire.

Yesterday the head of its Irish operations, Dr Paul Duffy, was asked how feasible it was to find a buyer for the three Irish plants.

“There is no doubt it is a difficult operating environment globally and there is excess capacity globally,” he said.

“It is very important to point that out to make sure we are being honest with people.”

In the last two years the company has left two plants, another in Loughbeg and one at Inchera in Little Island. While it found a buyer for the Loughbeg location, Hovione, that buyer only took on 70 of the 250 staff. To date no buyer has been found for the Inchera site where 200 people lost their jobs.

However, Mr Duffy remains optimistic for the three plants which are new to the market following yesterday’s announcement.

“The facilities we have for sale today are the plant in Dún Laoghaire in which we have invested €240m in the last five years and the biologics facility here in Cork (Shanbally) has just been completed at €190m. We have probably one of the most efficient tableting facilities in our Loughbeg product facility.

“These are not standard facilities, these are high class, highly valued facilities that are very capable so at least we are going to the market with something which I believe is the best that is out there.”

In its favour the company has time. It does not intend to move out of the Loughbeg facility until 2012, the Shanbally plant until 2013 and the Dún Laoghaire facility until between 2012 and 2014.

As regards the Newbridge facility, where 275 of the total 1,045 are to go, Mr Duffy said the job losses would be phased over five years, with 50 to go per year. He said in advance of all the staff reductions, Pfizer would be working with staff to provide additional skills which would make them more attractive to the workplace.

He also insisted that the cutbacks in Ireland would not result in a lessening of the quality of jobs Pfizer was offering here.

“We have centres of excellence in Ireland. Grange Castle is a centre of excellence for biotechnology activity, we have a centre of excellence in Askeaton, Limerick for nutrition, a centre of excellence in Cork for active ingredient manufacturing and a centre of excellence in Newbridge for solid oral dosage activity. It is not the case that we are losing the best and keeping the worst.

“We have, right now, and will retain, centres of excellence which will be significant suppliers to the global Pfizer network.”