This is what you call taking away with one hand while giving with the other. Merck says it's planning to invest €29 million ($41.8 million) at its plant in Cork, Ireland, and create 70 jobs there to boot. That former Schering-Plough plant was one of the company's facilities slated for layoffs in the post-merger streamlining. Some 160 workers were scheduled to be laid off.
Not that officials there are looking this gift horse in the mouth. As the Irish Independent reports, plant management in Cork has been scrambling since that layoff announcement in September to win new business within the company. The newspaper says that a drop in the cost-of-doing-business in Ireland helped win approval for the €29 million investment in two new projects there.
Apparently, some cost-cutting at the plant itself helped. RTE News reports that plant managers have been working to cut costs and re-position itself within the combined company.
- see the Independent story
- get more from RTE