Glaxo Wellcome To Expand In France

Glaxo Wellcome France is to expand in its domestic market after the completion of the streamlining of the GW group worldwide. Some 10% of its workforce has been shed and 80% of the jobs held by the French staff have been reclassified.

The firm is still seeking to abandon the Wellcome production site in the south of the country at Sophia Antipolis, and Jean-Pierre Mangeot, who heads up the new entity, said a lasting solution will be found within the next two months. In any event, he said, the plant will remain in use until the end of 1997.

GW will also retain production at Evreux as well as one of the group's eight R&D centers worldwide at Ulis. The headquarters will be switched in around two years' time from Issy-les-Mouineaux to Marly-le-Roi. The restructuring operation in France has cost some 500 million French francs ($96.4 million).