The Tech Group, also known as West Pharma, in Frankfort, has announced its plans to consolidate its local operations with another one of its production site.
According to Emily Denney, vice president, Global Communications & Corporate Philanthropy for parent corporation, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., the work will be moved to its contract manufacturing facility in Willamsport, Pennsylvania
“This is part of a restructuring program, that our company announced in February, to help streamline our manufacturing plant network and enable us to operate more efficiently and align our focus towards healthcare-related diagnostic and pharmaceutical products,” Denney reported to The Times in an email.
“While this transition won’t happen until closer to the end of the year, we wanted to give our team here plenty of time to understand and plan for this,” she said.
Currently, Denney said, there are fewer than 60 employees in Frankfort.
That number is down by more than 30 percent from the 85 employees reported to attorney Jay Moore for the CF-1 paperwork presented by Moore to the Frankfort City Council Monday to request a continuation of the joint abatement for The Tech Group and its landlord, Frankfort Realty Investment Group.
According to Moore, The Tech Group’s payroll for those 85 employees was $4.825 million, down from a high of $5.5 million paid to 116 workers in 2016.
Still, about 60 remaining workers is three times the number of Tech Group employees that council member Lewis Wheeler said remained. “I was told they have fewer than 20 employees and plan to leave this year,” he reported at the meeting.
Denney said employees who can be relocated will be and those remaining will be provided severance and job services.
“We will work closely with all impacted team members through this transition and will be offering relocation packages to those employees who are interested in relocating and who have the required skills and experiences to fill open roles across the West network, as we expect job opportunities to grow overall at West in 2018, as they did in 2017,” she said.
“In addition, West will be offering severance and outplacement services to care for and help in the transition for our employees who will no longer have a role within West.”