Bayer HealthCare will close St. Joseph manufacturing operations and idle 130 employees

Unable to find a buyer, Bayer Corp. has decided to close its St. Joseph animal health products manufacturing operations and idle 130 employees.

Production at the site will end by midyear, though sales of the products being made will continue until the inventory is used up, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Bayer had said in February that it sought buyers for parts of the Bayer HealthCare operation, which it had agreed in 2012 to buy from Teva Pharmaceutical for up to $145 million. The operations in that sale, completed in 2013, were manufacturing operations, a distribution center, a fluids facility, and a research and development center.

All of the operations other than the distribution center will close this summer.

Teva Pharmaceutical had employed about 300 at the combined operations.

At one point, Bayer had announced plans to invest $6.5 million in the plant and received offers for state and locally funded incentives. Those incentives required Bayer to maintain 120 to 125 jobs with average salaries of $59,000 plus benefits, according to an announcement from the St. Joseph Economic Development Partnership.

Bayer did not ultimately pursue the incentives, said Patt Lilly, president and chief executive of the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, which houses the partnership.

“We offered good support for the company,” Lilly said. “They were hopeful initially that their products might grow in a way that would allow for additional manufacturing here, but apparently that did not work out.”

Bayer said a changed market left it with excess capacity and led to the decision to close the plant.

Two products, the DVM and Expert Care brands made at the plant, will shift to other locations, Bayer said. The other products produced there will be discontinued.

Employees will receive severance pay and help with a job search. They also will be notified of potential Bayer jobs at other sites, including the company’s complex in Shawnee, where about 540 work.

Bayer said the closure did not reflect on the “performance of the employees at the site, who consistently show dedication to their work by producing high-quality animal health products.”

Lilly said the community would work with the company to market the idled plant, emphasizing that a ready-made workforce was available.

This story was originally published April 21, 2015 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Bayer HealthCare will close St. Joseph manufacturing operations and idle 130 employees."