Allergan Inc. will close a Santa Ana, Calif., medical plastics processing plant and, by mid-2003, relocate most operations to Texas and Ireland as part of a spin-off.
``The lion's share'' of the injection and injection blow molding will go to Waco, Texas, with some injection work going to Westport, Ireland, said Jacqueline Schiavo, corporate vice president for worldwide operations. Extrusion blow molding requirements will go to a vendor under control of the new spin-off.
The California site employs 96 and has 25 machines. The operation makes plastic bottles, tips and caps that Allergan uses annually in 200 million sterile-filled finished goods.
The major restructuring, announced Jan. 22, necessitates the move. The California workers can follow the business to Texas, the company said. Allergan intends to sell the 110,000-square-foot plant, Schiavo said by telephone from the Westport plant.
The Texas plant employs 453 including plastic processing technicians, package assemblers and support-office personnel.
Irvine-based Allergan plans to separate its ophthalmic surgical and contact-lens-care business lines in a distribution to be tax-free for company shareholders.
The new entity, designated Advanced Medical Optics Inc., will become an independent publicly traded company with plants in Anasco, Puerto Rico, and Hangzhou, China. The proposed new company accounted for 2001 sales totaling $543 million.
Specialty pharmaceuticals will remain under Allergan. Waco will join plants in Ireland and Guarulhos, Brazil, as sites for in-house, vertically integrated plastics processing.
Still, plastics processing constitutes ``a small part of our manufacturing capabilities,'' Schiavo said.
All of Allergan reported profit of $224.9 million on 2001 sales of $1.69 billion.
Pharmaceutical company SmithKline Corp. spun off subsidiary Allergan as an independent company in 1989.