Health firm starts £8.5m expansion
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GLOBAL healthcare company Fresnius Kabi has marked the start of construction of an £8.5m expansion at its Runcorn headquarters with a ground-breaking ceremony.
Halton’s mayor and mayoress John and Marjorie Bradshaw had the honour of putting the spade in the earth at the site in Manor Park. The company has said the investment will create jobs, mostly high skills roles in pharmaceuticals production, and boost the number of apprenticeships available.
It said the expansion will generate a 90,000 sqft of distribution and operations centre with a 23,500-sqft office adjacent to its existing headquarters.
Halton planning chiefs gave the goahead for the expansion in December.
Councillors had heard that the plans would generate more than 250 jobs and bring the site’s total employee tally to around 750 staff over the next 10 years.
It employs about 496 staff in Runcorn at present, and 940 across the country.
Fresenius Kabi manufactures medicines and technology for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition.
The firm said the new-build will massively boost capacity in Runcorn.
Phase one of the expansion is the construction of a dedicated distribution and operations centre for pharmaceutical and medical device products supplied to NHS hospitals and wholesalers. Completion is scheduled for end of March 2019. The second phase of expansion is due for completion in 2020.
Niamh Furey, Fresenius Kabi Ltd managing director, said “This expansion is great news for employees both present and future as we strengthen our presence as a prominent employer in the borough of Halton”.