Jobs to go as pharmaceutical manufacturer prepares to leave NZ
About 150 jobs are set to disappear from Manukau as Australian Pharmaceutical Industries plans to stop manufacturing in New Zealand.
The ASX-listed company announced this month it would focus on its pharmacy distribution and retail businesses in Australia, and outsource the manufacturing of its personal-care and over-the-counter products in New Zealand.
Products made by API in New Zealand are expected to be progressively outsourced over the next one to two years, and the company’s two sites are to close completely by mid-2023.
After purchasing what was Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing in 2002, API has been operating from two sites in Manukau on Norman Spencer Dr and Plunket Ave.
According to the company’s website, its pharmaceutical facilities are a licensed manufacturing facility for both Medsafe and its Australian equivalent, the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Its over-the-counter products include the Health Basics, Only Good and Home Essentials lines.
A spokesman for the company declined to comment beyond a statement to the ASX.
“By moving to outsourced contract manufacturing we will generate lower cost of goods and have greater continuity in product supply, both of which have been impeded by Covidrelated impacts,” chief executive Richard Vincent said in the statement.
In an email to Food & Grocery Council chief executive Katherine Rich, API said the impact of Covid-19 and the “continual unfavourable ranging decisions by grocery retailers has made this an easy decision”.
The decision was “just another example of how the current market duopoly has a very real impact on the fabric of our economy,” Rich said.
“Margin expectations are so high, often it makes no sense to manufacture in New Zealand.” API also told suppliers it had been hurt by changing consumer habits and very low demand for cold and flu medicines.
This week API rejected an A$1.38 a share offer to buy the company from retail conglomerate Wesfarmers, the owners of Bunnings and KMart.