Salford City Council planners have greenlit proposals to turn a warehouse on an industrial estate in Cadishead, Salford, into a huge 44,000sq ft medical packaging plant.
US pharmaceuticals giant Omnicell says it will provide 55 new full-time jobs at the plant off the A57 Cadishead Way, near the Port Salford development.
This is expected to rise to 135 full-time positions over the next 10 years.
The change of use plans will see the offices turned into a unit for the manufacture, storage and distribution of medical packaging products.
It’s good news for the employment prospects in the local area after telecoms firm TalkTalk announced in June it would close its Cadishead offices, moving 700 network engineering centre staff four miles up the road to Salford Quays.
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Cadishead councillor Jimmy Hunt told SalfordOnline.com: “I’m delighted to hear about this large business moving into the area, and I hope that the majority of these jobs will go to local people.”
Omnicell provide systems to automate the inventory ordering, receiving, stocking, and picking processes for hospitals, pharmacies and healthcare firms.
Planning documents state: “The manufacturing process will be entirely contained within the building which means that no neighbouring occupiers will be affected.”
Opening hours are listed as Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 5.30pm, and Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm.
Work is expected to revolve around the manufacture of plastic blister packs for medicines using plastic injection moulding machines.
California-headquartered Omnicell is looking to advance into the UK market after its 2014 acquisitions of UK medication packaging provider Surgichem Limited and robotic medication dispensing systems manufacturer MACH4 Pharma Systems.
The company posted a revenue of $440m for the year ending December 2014, with tripled profits over the past five years. Revenue for 2015 is expected to be between $495 and $510 million.
In April 2015 Omnicell bought out West Sussex-based Avantec Healthcare, which has installed over 900 automated medication systems in 80 NHS and private hospitals.
Leeds-based Colliers International advised on the planning application.
