RICHMOND - Governor Mark R. Warner today announced that Wyeth, a global leader in pharmaceuticals, consumer health care and animal health care, will expand its manufacturing and distribution operations at its Darbytown Road location in eastern Henrico County. The company will invest $30 million in highly automated packaging equipment, robotic material handling systems and electronic systems for production and inventory data.
The new investment will allow Wyeth to increase its current production volume, making the Virginia location one of the largest Wyeth sites in the country, and the upgrades to the company’s technology systems will provide for additional higher-skilled job opportunities. Virginia successfully competed with North Carolina and Tennessee for the project.
Governor Warner met with Wyeth Chairman and CEO Robert Essner at the company’s Madison, New Jersey, headquarters to discuss the project in March 2004, during a marketing mission organized by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
“Wyeth has been a long-standing community leader and major employer in the Richmond area for more than 50 years,” said Governor Warner. “This maker of major nationally recognized health care products will continue to benefit from the Commonwealth’s central East Coast location and its dedicated employees in Central Virginia.”
Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, a division of Wyeth, is one of the world’s leaders in the development, manufacturing and marketing of non-prescription medicines, vitamins and nutritional products, including such established brands as Advil®, Centrum®, ChapStick®, Dimetapp® and Robitussin®. With 2004 sales of about $2.5 billion, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare is one of the largest over-the-counter health care product companies in the world.
“Wyeth Consumer Healthcare and Richmond have enjoyed a long history of success together,” said Doug Rogers, President of Wyeth Consumer Healthcare. “When it came time to look at places to expand some of our operations, it made a great deal of sense to choose the Richmond area.”
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership prepared the state’s proposal and negotiated an incentive package to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Warner approved a $2 million performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program, an incentive available to existing Virginia companies. The Virginia Department of Business Assistance will support the project with training assistance through its Workforce Services Program. The Greater Richmond Partnership and the Henrico County Economic Development Authority also assisted Wyeth with its decision.
“We are very pleased that Wyeth, a renowned leader in the pharmaceutical industry, shows a continuing commitment to Henrico County,” said Frank Thornton, Chairman of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors. “Wyeth is a long-time corporate citizen and this announcement is great news for our community. It confirms that Henrico offers a business environment where major corporations can prosper.”