Plant Shutdown Leaves 120 Bayer Workers Out of a Job
June 19, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Production at a Bayer HealthCare facility in St. Joseph, Mo. will cease next week resulting in the loss of about 120 jobs, the St. Joseph News Press reported this morning.
The plant, which produced animal health product lines, is expected to cease production June 24, with only a small crew remaining through the end of the year to handle final decommissioning procedures,” Bayer spokeswoman Lauren Dorsch told the News Press.
The decision to close the facility was primarily due to changes in the market, Bayer told the Kansas City Business Journal. Sales are expected to continue until the inventory is depleted. Two products, the DVM and Expert Care brands, dog and cat dermatology products, made at the plant, will shift to other locations, Bayer said. The other products produced there will be discontinued.
In February the company announced plans to divest its animal health pharmaceutical facilities in St. Josephs after it failed to find a buyer for the operation, the Kansas City Star reported. In April the Germany-based Bayer announced the decision to close the facility. In a statement the company said the “divestment is not related to the performance of our employees at the St. Joseph site, who consistently show dedication to their work. … It’s about focusing our resources to align with Bayer HealthCare’s overall business and production strategy.”
The St. Joseph facility was acquired by Bayer in 2013 as part of a $145 million acquisition of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. ’s animal healthcare business. In a statement, Teva said the sale of the facility in St. Joseph would allow the company to focus on human health and the production of generic and branded medication. Included in the Teva deal were manufacturing operations, a fluids facility, a research and development center and a distribution center.
As part of the closing, everything except the distribution center will be shuttered.
Employees receiving pink slips will receive severance pay and help with a job search, including notification of potential positions within Bayer at the company’s facility in Shawnee, where about 540 are employed. The Shawnee site serves as headquarters for Bayer’s animal health division.
At one point Bayer had planned to invest $6.5 million into the plant and had lined up governmental incentive funding, but ultimately decided against that plan, which required the company to keep 120 to 125 jobs with average salaries of $59,000 and benefits.
Bayer’s North American animal health business is based in Shawnee and employs fewer than 750, with around 500 in the Kansas City area.
Over the past year there has been other movement in the animal healthcare arena, including Eli Lilly and Company's acquisition of Novartis Animal Health. Under that deal, which closed Jan. 1 Eli Lilly and Company acquired Novartis Animal Health for about $5.4 billion. That deal also resulted in lost jobs, with Lilly announcing the close of its Terre Haute, Ind. animal enzyme manufacturing facility by early 2016, laying off 23 people.
In January Swiss-based Novartis it was closing a manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico by 2019, resulting in the loss of more than 250 jobs. That site manufactured animal health products, Sentinel, Interceptor and Milbemax.
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