The Covid factor has caught up with pharmaceutical packaging group West, with profits at its expanding Irish business halving last year according to figures just filed at Companies Office.
The company, which has substantial operations in Dublin and Waterford, saw profits at its Irish business jump by 63 per cent to €78.3 million in 2022 on the back of a 24 per cent rise in sales.
But figures just released for 2023 show that profit before tax at West Pharmaceutical Products Ltd slumped to €39.8 million last year. Not only is that a collapse of 50 per cent in a year, it is a significant 17 per cent lower than the profit the growing business was making two years ago.
The slide in profits came as sales fell over 13 per cent, something the company attributed to falling demand for Covid therapies. West’s Waterford plant was heavily involved in the Covid vaccine roll-out, producing stoppers for vials of vaccine to combat the pandemic.
Aside from the stoppers, the company says its principal activity in Ireland is the manufacture of elastomeric laminate sheeting, which is used to package insulin for use in pen injectors. That side of the business could also be feeling the heat as Novo Nordisk, one of the biggest players in the insulin pen market, announced recently it was withdrawing from the business and relying instead on insulin vials that are injected more traditionally into the body.
However, West seems confident that the fast-growing demand for supplies of obesity drugs – using much the same delivery system as the insulin pens – will more than fill the gap. The company last week announced the creation of 330 jobs in an expansion of its Dublin manufacturing base, increasing its Irish workforce increase by more than a quarter.
[ Pharma packaging group West announces 330 jobs for DublinOpens in new window ]
That expansion was driven by the dramatic increase in demand for injectable treatments for obesity and diabetes, the company said at the time.
The company was wary of getting into discussion on the latest figures, noting that it does not comment on the results of individual subsidiary operations. But it did add: “West believes that the Irish market is an attractive area for investments and continues to build out its infrastructure and organisation,” pointing to the recent expansion and noting that employment in Ireland has jumped by half in the past two years.
Certainly, the company is confident enough in the Irish business to have transferred a dividend of €60.7 million last June to its immediate Irish-based parent company.
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