Drugs giant staying local for global corporate HQ

Aug 27 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A PHARMACEUTICALS giant is keeping faith with its North East roots by opening its new global corporate headquarters in Newcastle.

Aesica, which was previously based at its technical and manufacturing site in Cramlington and also has plants at Ponders End in North London and Queenborough in Kent, has set up its new head office at Balliol Business Park.

The business, which is named after a fort on Hadrian’s Wall and was created as the result of a management buyout in 2004, supplies pharmaceutical ingredients and formulated products to a number of leading international drug companies.

It has trebled in size in four years since taking over the Ponders End factory from Merck and the Queenborough site from US healthcare business Abbot. The Cramlington factory remains the technical centre as well as a manufacturing facility.

“Most of our facilities and people are in the South East now but we still want to maintain our North East roots,” said chief executive Dr Robert Hardy.

However, the Cramlington site is currently not operating at full capacity after an expected product launch did not happen. In July, Aesica said talks had started about reducing the 160-strong Northumberland workforce by around 50. The business has an overall staff of more than 700.

Dr Hardy said it was difficult to put a precise figure on how many people would lose their jobs in Cramlington.

“We are looking at voluntary redundancies, natural wastage and looking to move people temporarily to other sites. We are trying to do this on a gradual basis,” he said.

“Cramlington must stay profitable for the future of the site. Cramlington is also the centre of our technical team but this only impacts the manufacturing.”

He said the Northumberland base was a vital component in the Aesica set-up.

“The intention is to introduce new chemical products in Cramlington. We have a number of leads but there will be a period when we won’t be running at full capacity at the site but we do see Cramlington as a key manufacturing site for pharmaceutical products.”

Aesica was the highest climber in The Journal’s Top 250 list of the region’s biggest companies this year, rising 126 places to 115th place on the back of £60m in annual sales. The company is aiming to achieve £150m in sales by 2010 and has recently set up its stall in the US, where it is also looking to buy a manufacturing site.

“In the US we have an office and we’ll be setting up an office in China. We eventually hope to manufacture in the US. We are a global company – 95% of our business is outside the UK. I would hope within 12 months we would have something in the US.”

Aesica was recently recognised as one of the fastest growing North East companies in the Journal Top 250. To see the full list visit nebusiness.co.uk