Zoetis expansion gets EPA approval, but second extension plan now on hold
A significant expansion of pet health firm Zoetis in Tullamore has been licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency, clearing the way for the project to open.
However, it has emerged that plans for a second expansion of the company's facility in Tullamore are currently on hold.
A €133m biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility, spanning 8,510 square metres, at Zoetis in the IDA Business & Technology Park in Tullamore was granted planning permission by Offaly Council in January 2022. Construction has been completed on the new building, which is understood to be going through a commissioning phase currently.
This is expected to result in the addition of some 100 employees to the company's existing staff of 150 in Tullamore.
In connection with this first extension, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last month approved a review of the company's Industrial Emissions Licence to permit a five-fold expansion of the production capacity in terms of finished product volume
The new production building will operate 24 hours a day, seven-days-a-week on a year-round basis once at full operation. It will have approximately 100 employees, working on a shift system.
Meanwhile, in March 2023, Zoetis Belgium S.A. (Irish Branch) received planning approval for a second expansion of its Tullamore base. This plan comprised a 8,000 square-metre extension to the manufacturing facility given planning approval twelve months previously and which was licensed last month by the EPA.
However, in correspondence to the EPA, agents for the company said: “Zoetis sought this ten-year approval in the event that market conditions would demand an increase in the production capacity at Zoetis Tullamore facility. Currently, there is no detailed design complete, nor has any construction activity commenced under this approved planning application.”
Zoetis told the EPA that should it decide in the future to exercise this second planning permission and increase manufacturing capacity at the facility, this would trigger a full review of its Industrial Emissions Licence.
The second extension was expected to add up to 90 jobs to the staff number.
At the time of the planning application for this second extension, the company said the “intent of the facility is to expand and enhance the emerging biopharmaceutical campus to include both clinical trial activities and production research activities.”
The construction phase, it said, was expected to take some 18 months, with construction staff numbers likely to peak at 450. It was, at that time, envisaged the new extension could be opened by 2025, subject to planning. The company said it was planned to build the development on “an accelerated schedule”.