This article is from page 2 of the 2008-09-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
REVENUES at the Roche pharma- ceutical plant in Clarecastle declined by a third last year with pre-tax profits dropping by three per cent to €26.6 million.
The accounts for the subsidiary of Swiss-owned pharmaceutical giant show revenues dropping from €146 million to €102 million to the end of 2007.
The company blames the drop in revenues to the cessation of the pro- duction of the dI Acid drug in Sep- tember 2006. For almost 30 years, dl Acid was a key product at the Clare- castle plant.
A company spokesman yesterday described 2007 “as a challenging year for the company’. Operating costs in 2007 declined from €119 million to ©81 million last year.
The Irish subsidiary didn’t pay a dividend in 2006, but last year paid €30 million in dividends. This re- sulted in shareholders’ funds at the end of 2007 amounting to €130 mil- lion.
Roche Ireland had accumulated profits of €124 million at the end of 2007.
Staff costs for 242 employees at the plant — down 10 on the 2006 total — were €24.2 million, a drop of €1 million on the 2006 figure.
©6.7 million was set aside for envi- ronmental works at the plant in 2007 and the most recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) audit found the company in compliance with all conditions of its environmental li- cense.
Directors’ aggregate payments last year were ©242,000.
According to the directors’ state- ment, the principal risks and uncer- tainties facing the company include the identification of replacement products for existing group products that come off patent in the coming years.
‘These risks are managed by the Roche Group at a central level,” the
statement added.
“The company is identified as a strategic site by the Roche group and as part of it’s international chemical strategy. The focus continues on dual sourcing of strategic and important products and outsourcing of low val- ue products.
‘The directors intend to work with Roche Group centrally to evaluate further opportunities for the com- pany.”
Dr Frank Cox took over as manag- ing director of the Clarecastle site last April, moving from the sister site in Florence, South Carolina, to replace John Liddy who had held the post for the previous ten years.