Quintiles Transnational Corp. last month announced that it has chosen the Atlanta metro area to become the headquarters for its worldwide laboratory operations. Quintiles, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical development companies, will invest $19 million in the expansion, retaining 450 jobs and creating 400 high-level ones through 2011.
The company will consolidate its Global Central Laboratories in Smyrna and its Clinical Development Services office in Atlanta within a single facility in Marietta, more than doubling its current space to accommodate the expansion. Renovation of the former AT&T building was expected to begin this month.
The first groups of employees are scheduled to move by mid-2008.
“The increasing demand for our CDS and laboratory services is driving us to expand existing operations and open new ones around the world,” said Dennis Gillings, chairman and CEO of Quintiles Transnational. “By expanding our Global Central Laboratories and partnering with Georgia’s excellent research facilities, we will improve coordination and efficiency for our customers, a critical part of growing our business.”
Quintiles Laboratories owns a network of facilities in the United States, Europe, South Africa, China, India and Singapore, and it has tightly controlled sub-contractor laboratories in Argentina and Brazil managed by Quintiles employees located in each facility.
Another biopharmaceutical company, UCB, also announced a $5 million expansion of its U.S. subsidiary’s headquarters on the north side of the Atlanta metro.
Earlier this summer, Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. announced its decision to increase production capacity at its North American manufacturing subsidiary, Toyo Tire North America, near Cartersville, Ga. The company’s expansion will add more than 100 jobs to its existing work force of 370 and will involve a $50 million investment in capital improvements.
Toyo Tire North America, Toyo’s first consumer tire production plant in the United States, began commercial production of passenger car and light truck tires in March 2006. The facility’s leading-edge technology makes it among the most advanced tire production plants in the world.
The company’s current work force already exceeds its initial plan to employ 350 workers, and the new jobs bring the company closer to its stated goal of increasing employment to as much as 900, based on future demand in the North American tire market.
In late spring, MBM Foodservice, a Rocky Mount, N.C.,-based company, announced that it will expand its distribution center in Macon, Ga. The company will build a $8 million, 91,000 square foot refrigerated and dry distribution center to serve the company’s customers in the Southeastern U.S.
The facility will be constructed by Smithson Inc., based in Rocky Mount, on a 16-acre site in the Ocmulgee East Industrial Park in East Macon. The park is owned by the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority.
“We are excited about opening a flagship distribution center for one of America’s premier fast food chains,” said Brian Wordsworth, owner of MBM Foodservice. “This is an exciting time for Chik-fil-A, as well as MBM Corp.
The new facility will be completed later this year and will serve the company’s major customer, Chik-fil-A, in the Southeast. The expansion will result in an additional 100 jobs at the facility.
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