Up to 200 jobs to be created at a Clonmel pharmaceutical facility will benefit The Avondhu’s readership area, a Tipperary councillor has said.
Independent councillor Andy Moloney, said that people travelled from all over to work at the old Suir Pharma site in Clonmel, which has now been taken over by IQ Pharmatek and he cannot see why it would not be the same this time.
“People who were employed there before were from all around. They would have been travelling from Fermoy, Limerick and up from Waterford. People tend to travel for the pharmaceutical industry,” he added.
Suir Pharma closed last May with the loss of over 130 jobs. The driving time between Mitchelstown and Clonmel is approximately 40 minutes, while it takes roughly 45 minutes to travel from Fermoy to Clonmel.
The 200 new jobs were announced last week by IQ Pharmatek. Around 100 jobs are to be created at the facility this year, with a further 100 in 2018.
IQ Pharmatek, who were established in Ireland last year and have their headquarters in Loughrea in Galway, has taken over the old Suir Pharma site in Clonmel.
Cllr Moloney said many of the people who were employed there before have found new jobs and it is a new opportunity, although previous experience will obviously be a factor.
“The company closed in May, everyone got their redundancy at the time. A new HR company will be employed to do the hiring, so it will be a clean sheet as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
The company intend to continue the business of contract manufacturing for third parties and there is a plan in place to introduce the company’s own range of products. The current target customers and markets will be Europe, North America, Canada and the Far East.
IQ Pharmatek intends to expand the facility in the future to include an injectable manufacturing line, which will be a stand alone facility on a greenfield site within the plant.
