Up to 125 jobs are to be lost in Co Tipperary, with the announced closure of the 30 years old SunPharma Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals plant in Cashel.
The facility which manufactured and packaged generic drugs is expected to cease its operations at the end of April and will completely shut down by the middle of May 2016.
Concerns were growing for the future of the workforce at the plant, situated on the Cahir road, in late 2015, when staff were called to a meeting with management to discuss the long term future of the site.
Last year the world’s fifth largest drugs producer Sun Pharma completed a merger with fellow Indian company Ranbaxy, which included the Cashel plant. The company then announced it was seeking to re-organise its global operations with a view to optimising its costs and overall capacity. The company then stated its intention to scale down or divest itself of certain operations worldwide.
In a statement Sun Pharma said it decided to cease operations at its Cashel unit as part of an ongoing operations network review. The company said it will now move certain laboratory roles to other facilities within Sun Pharma’s global operations network.
The company state that they will engage with trade unions and employee representatives in the coming months and at the end of this period, if necessary, the company may proceed with redundancies.
A very sad story.