Merck KGaA refines Western European life science production site network

Company to invest €90 million and cut 200 jobs.

The Life Science business will implement the following changes:

“Centralizing filling of small quantities and their distribution will continue to increase our speed and responsiveness to customer requests. This is something that the acquired Sigma-Aldrich excelled in and we see positive impacts of this effort already in North America,” said Udit Batra, Member of the Executive Board and CEO, Life Science.

Batra added: “Our responsibility to customers as well as our employees remains of the utmost importance. As our strong history has proven, by partnering with employee representative bodies across the respective countries, we are committed to fair and acceptable solutions for those impacted by relocation plans.”

“By continuously optimizing our site network, Merck can better serve our customers and focus investments that develop capacity and capability most effectively and efficiently across our manufacturing and distribution operations,” said Christos Ross, Executive Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain Operations, Life Science. “We have most recently been optimizing our capabilities with network updates at our sites through the USA such as St Louis and Massachusetts, and around the globe in China, Cork Ireland and Japan, to name a few. As demonstrated in these network optimizations, we will work across all sites to ensure a smooth transition and no customer disruption.”