Dublin, Ireland — Monday. 27th Sepember 2021— West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE: WST), a global leader in innovative solutions for injectable drug administration, has created 60 new jobs in Dublin as part of establishing a new global finance shared service model here.
The new shared service model centralises West’s key finance activities in Dublin and Exton, Pennsylvania, to drive efficiency and support increasing company growth. The new center in Dublin includes various accounting and finance activities and will create greater scale and value for West’s global business and operations. West now employs over a thousand team members across Ireland, including its manufacturing facilities in Waterford and Dublin.
Bernard J. Birkett, West Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, said the new finance service center in Dublin will ultimately support the company’s overall mission to improve patient lives: “This new finance support model enables our overall business strategy of responding and transforming to meet the changing needs of the market to deliver high quality components and service to our customers that will ultimately improve more patient lives—and that’s what matters most.”
Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said: “I’m really pleased to see West adding 60 new highly skilled jobs to its operations here in Ireland. Our pharma industry continues to grow from strength to strength and companies like West are an important part of that story. The company employs over a thousand people here and this new Global Finance Centre is a further testament to our attractive business environment, robust regulatory framework and skilled labour force. I wish the team at West all the best with this new chapter.”
Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland said:
“West’s decision to establish this new global finance center in Dublin is most welcome. Adding a new finance function to the existing manufacturing activity in Dublin and Waterford illustrates the confidence West has in Ireland to deliver on its global business needs. I wish West every success with the new global finance center and acknowledge the company’s significant and ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic at its manufacturing facility in Waterford.”
This is West’s latest expansion of its Irish operations and follows the company’s scaling up of its Waterford plant’s working schedules late last year in response to a big surge in customer demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Waterford plant is now supplying millions of rubber vial stoppers to a dozen global customers to package vaccine doses as part of the COVID-19 vaccine programme. The plant doubled its workforce to meet this new demand over the past year.
Birkett added: “We are committed to doing our part to provide for the large-scale manufacture of high-quality components required to serve customer needs for the delivery of these COVID-19 vaccines. This has resulted in growing our global workforce, expanding facility and equipment resources and shifting to 24/7 operating schedules at several sites, including Waterford, to address the demand for components associated with COVID-19.”
Led by Site Director Tom Clarke, West’s Dublin facility has 20 years of operations and sustained growth including high volume, complex device manufacturing. With almost 100 years of experience and a reputation for leadership in quality, West is internationally recognised for its excellence in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical packaging and medical devices. It is a leading manufacturer of delivery systems for injectable drugs and healthcare products.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain forward-looking statements are included in this press release. They use words such as "innovative," “new,” “will,” "create," "improve," “enables,” "meet," and other similar terminology. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this release. There is no certainty that actual results will be achieved in-line with current expectations. Specifically, there is no certainty that West’s new global finance shared service model and/or West’s supply of components for use with COVID-19 vaccine delivery will achieve any particular result. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The following are some of the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or underlying our forward-looking statements: customers’ changing inventory requirements and manufacturing plans, increased raw material costs, and the ability to meet development milestones with key customers. These important factors are not all inclusive. For a description of certain additional factors that could cause West's future results to differ from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements, see Item 1A, entitled "Risk Factors," in West's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. Except as required by law or regulation, West undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.