P&G Woods Corners jobs on the line

NORWICH – Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals has entered into contract negotiations with an unnamed global biopharmaceutical company for outsourcing the development work it conducts at its Woods Corners facility in Norwich.

The ongoing negotiations, if successful, would likely lead to closure of the technical center over a two-year period. The announcement was made locally Tuesday morning. P&G currently employs 180 in Norwich, down from 700 just seven years ago when the Cincinnati-based company also owned and operated the Eaton Center on Eaton Avenue and a manufacturing facility in North Norwich.

“The business operations that we are doing here would be split up, with some to our outsourcing contracting partner and some retained within P&G, which would likely transfer to our Mason business center in Ohio,” site manager Steven Cammarn said Tuesday afternoon.

If the negotiations aren’t successful, Cammarn said operations would continue as normal in Norwich.

Company employees were informed of the pending development at a meeting Tuesday morning. Site External Relations Leader Scott Docherty said the announcement was “not that the Woods Corners Technical Center is closing, but an announcement that we are in negotiations. Those negotiations are a large variable. No decision has been made.”

“We still have a lot of important work to do here for our customers,” Cammarn said. “None of the work here is changing right now.”

The executives said there were no arrangements for relocating employees at this time.

News this week that Outsourcing Services Group, based in New Jersey, would be selling its operations in North Norwich was “purely coincidental,” Cammarn said. OSG is one of P&G Pharmaceuticals’ contract manufacturers; however the two developments have no relationship, he said.