Northern Irish firm Almac plans €23m US facility expansion

Almac, the Craigavon-headquartered pharmaceutical group, is to invest £20 million (€23.6 million) at its key facility in the United States in a major expansion project that is expected to create 312 jobs for Souderton in Pennsylvania.

The privately owned group also intends to lease additional space in nearby Lansdale and expand its facilities in Europe as part of the investment project that is likely to increase its global workforce to 5,000 by the end of next year.

Almac will also invest about £5 million in a new laboratory and office facility at Craigavon and inject a further £2 million into the Arran Chemical Company facility in Athlone which it acquired last year.

Alan Armstrong, chief executive of the Almac Group, said that “significant industry demand” was the major reason why it was building additional capacity and recruiting more employees at this time.

It employs more than 4,600 staff with about 60 per cent of its global workforce based in Craigavon.

Further commitment

The group, which provides contract development, manufacturing and an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, also has operations in North Carolina, California, Singapore and Tokyo.

Mr Armstrong said: “This year we are celebrating our 20th year in the US and we are excited to make a further commitment within the Pennsylvania State and throughout North America.

“We are also delighted to announce our further expansion plans across Europe as we continue to build upon our tremendous global success and we are looking forward to an exciting future.”

The governor of Pennsylvania, Democrat Tom Wolf said Almac had become a major player in his state’s bio-pharma industry since it made its first invested $100 million in 2007 and he welcomed its latest re-investment commitment.

“We look forward to its continued success as it once again chooses Pennsylvania for its operations expansion,” Mr Wolf added.

Almac has received a £1.3 million Pennsylvania First grant from the state’s department of community and economic development towards its investment project.