P&G consolidates research and development facilities
The company is closing its Needham, Michigan, facility, which it acquired as part of its Gillette acquisition in 2005, alongside its Miami Valley facility in Colerain Township, Ohio.
The Needham facility has supported the development of Gillette shaving brands, the Crest and Oral-B oral care brands, as well as Duracell batteries.
Approximately twelve positions within the oral care research and development facility are expected to be transferred out to the company’s related facility in Germany.
Transferring to consolidate
The company says that approximately 105 employees at the Needham facility will be transferred to another nearby facility in Moson, south Boston.
It is also transferring out 145 employees from its research and development facility in Lewisburg, Ohio to its Mason and Winton Hills sites, which are also situated in the vicinity of Cincinnati.
P&G says said the centralizing operation should affect around 700 staff, most of whom will either be transferred to other research and development facilities within the company, but will also work towards alternative solutions for other employees.
Company spokesperson Paul Fox said that the transfers would begin to take place next year and would be ongoing until mid-2012.
Acting out of urgency
In September P&G said it would ‘act with urgency’ to return the company to organic sales growth after a tough first six months of the financial bought about by the economic downturn.
Things hit rock bottom in August when the company released its quarterly figures for the period ending June 30, showing that net sales dropped by 11 percent.
Although much of this was attributed to currency effects, the company pledged that it would concentrate on both returning to sales growth in 2010, as well as continuing with plans to synergize and centralize its manufacturing operations.
