Abbott Laboratories Created 400 New Jobs With New Facility In India
October 17, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories today launched a new facility to manufacture various nutrition products in India and create 400 new jobs.
The new plant is located in Jhagadia in the Bharuch district of Gujarata.
Of the 10 nutrition products Abbott markets in India, at least six of them will be manufactured at the Jhagadia plant. “These six are our high-value products, contributing 90-95 percent of our total nutrition sales,” said Amal Kelshikar, managing director of Abbott Nutrition in a statement. “Our current focus will be on these and we will expand the portfolio, depending on the need in the market.”
The company indicates it will source about 80 percent of its raw materials from local distributors for the plant. To date, most materials were imported from Singapore and Europe.
On a related note, Abbott Healthcare Pvt Ltd, recently indicated it would modify its nutritional products for the taste of India’s population.
It will conduct research at its research and development center in Bangalore. An example is production of saffron-almond (kesar badam) flavored PediaSure. The Indian market for nutrition products is growing by around 11 percent annually.
“The product taste is designed to suit the Indian market,” said John Landgraf, executive vice president of Global Nutrition for Abbott in a statement. “The Indian market is significantly big, hence, we will cater to the local market first and not consider experts from this plant at present.”
The new facility will manufacture products such as Similac, PediaSure, Ensure, Mama’s Best and Glucerna. It cost approximately $75 million to build and has the capacity to manufacture 40 million pounds of nutritional samples annually.
The plan covers 39 acres and is a “green” company designed to minimize environmental impact by limiting CO2 emissions, water usage and sewerage and waste. The facility utilizes “Karnal” technology, which reuses wastewaster on 10 acres of eucalyptus and casuarina trees that have been planted onsite.
The facility is the third one built this year by Abbott. The other two are in Tipp City, OH and Jiaxing, China. “We want to be closer to our customer in India,” said Landgraf in a statement. “This plant will ensure we make our own products here, monitor their quality and cater to specific health needs of local communities.”