By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – Contract Pharmaceuticals Limited is closing its Buffalo plant on Forest Avenue.
CPL purchased the former Westwood-Sqibb plant five years ago. CPL hired the existing 200 employees and then added 60 new jobs since then and invested more than $4.5 million in the site. All will lose their jobs.
CPL, a manufacturer of ointments and creams, will shift the work done at the Buffalo plant to a facility in Ontario.
"This was a very difficult decision to make," said Ken Paige, CPL's CEO. "When we acquired the facility, we believed that we could attract significant new business to fill much of the excess capacity. But given the current slower growth in the pharmaceutical outsourcing market, we never got to the production levels we needed for long-term economic success."
Company officials say excess manufacturing capacity because of the recession is the primary reason for the plant's closing, scheduled for the end of next year.