Merck increasing animal health business operations in Summit
February 1st, 2012 // 1:21 pm @ jmpickett
Merck said today it plans to centralize its animal health business by moving dozens of functions to Summit from operations in the Netherlands.
The plan, which must still be reviewed by the Dutch government’s Work Council, will involve relocating most of the animal health unit’s commercial, marketing and corporate headquarters operations to the Summit campus.
The proposed consolidation follows the company’s nearly year-old announcement that it would carry out an extensive evaluation of the animal health business, including its geographical footprint.
“We believe we can operate more effectively and efficiently with the centralization of our headquarter functions in the U.S.,’’ Rick De Luca, president of Merck Animal Health, said in statement.
“This will strengthen the team cohesion required to operate at the highest level globally,’’ De Luca said. “It will also place us in the important U.S. market and brings us closer to our parent company to align strategy and leverage our shared resources.’’
The plan is expected to impact about 65 jobs at the animal health site in Boxmeer, a town in the southern Netherlands.
The Boxmeer site, which has a total of 1,700 employees, will continue to have research and manufacturing operations, Merck said.
