LARNE based medical supplies company Terumo BCT has defended its recruitment record after creating just 55 additional positions, three years after announcing plans to create 416 new jobs.
The firm is run by Japanese parent company the Terumo Corporation and specialises in creating medical products used in blood-banking.
At the time of the announcement in June 2013 it employed 230 workers at its Larne factory.
In total, 416 new positions were to be created across its sales, production and distribution sectors, in a bid to meet increasing worldwide demand and cement its position in the north as a manufacturing powerhouse.
As of March of this year, only 13 per cent of those positions had been filled.
In June 2013 the prominence of the news was highlighted by the fact that it was announced by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe during a visit to Belfast's Titanic Quarter days after the G8 summit.
At the time, Invest NI offered £2 million in support for the jobs boost and a further £500,000 for Terumo to expand its research and development branch at its Co Antrim subsidiary.
As deputy first minister Martin McGuiness and then first minister Peter Robinson toured the Larne facility in 2013 and declared their delight in the employment revitalisation, Troy Deppey, vice-president of disposables manufacturing at Terumo said: “We are going to get a lot bigger very quickly.”
Annual combined salaries for the 416 jobs would have also contributed some £6m to Northern Ireland's economy each year.
According to director and general manager at Terumo BCT Scott Henderson, the jobs shortcoming is due to complications within the industry.
“It the highly regulated market that is pharmaceuticals, it takes much longer to develop the product and then get it through FDA and MHRA approval,” he told the Irish News.
“So even though that was mooted at the time, we are still looking at significant growth in our five-year plan going forward.”
Mr Henderson also said that the process of expansion, and thus jobs creation, takes much longer for pharmaceutical companies compared to those in other industries.
“Because we’re a pharmaceutical company we’ve got to do stability testing for a number of years and then submit to the regulatory authority, which then have to approve the products,” he said.
“It takes a bit longer than other businesses, where you just put the machinery in place and just start making.”
“A lot of growth is still there but it’s further down the line,” he assured.
Invest NI said in a statement that Terumo’s previous jobs pledge was actually part of a six-year plan and progress is being made.
“Terumo BCT is recognised as one of the most innovative companies in the world and makes a valuable contribution to growing Northern Ireland’s life sciences sector,” it said.
“The expansion announced by the company in 2013 is a six-year project, therefore the company is still progressing its plans to recruit all the new jobs by 2019.
“Invest NI support is only paid to businesses once key milestones and targets are met. To date Terumo BCT has drawn down just over £500,000 towards the new jobs and R&D project.”
Terumo has operated in the east Antrim town since 2004 and currently employs 285 workers.
