Almac growth set to continue in 2009
26 January 2009
The Almac Group, which has its headquarters in Craigavon, Northern Ireland with further sites in the USA, expanded its workforce by 250 last year and is looking forward to further expansion in 2009.
During 2008 staff numbers in Northern Ireland rose by 15% to 1,428 and in the US by 10% to 762. Growth in employee numbers has taken place across the group, particularly in the clinical trial and research areas.
2009 will also see considerable progress in the building of the company’s new US headquarters in Pennsylvania and in the UK construction continues on a new 3-storey analytical annex due for completion in 2009. Considerable investment has also been made in its software development and IT systems to support the changing business needs.
Almac’s Chief Executive Officer Alan Armstrong welcomed the increase in employee numbers and noted that 60% are graduates.
“Every month we have an induction process for incoming staff. Over December and January 26 new staff went through the induction so we have every reason to face into the coming year with a degree of optimism. The pharmaceutical sector is far from immune to the global financial crisis but Almac is a company which operates at the highest level of research and development and meeting the needs of our customers in a precise, high quality way. We continue to attract highly skilled employees to the company and it is both the quality and enthusiasm of our staff which drives the success of Almac.”
