Evonik Announces 260 More Layoffs as Part of Multi-Year Restructuring

Evonik has announced layoffs of around 260 employees - in addition to previously announced job cuts - as the company continues its ongoing multi-year reorganization to streamline operations and reduce costs in its specialty chemicals business to improve profitability and focus on higher-margin growth areas.

The following article originally appeared in Fierce Pharma.

Earlier this year, Evonik unveiled a restructuring project that will result in up to 2,000 layoffs. Now, the German chemicals company and contract manufacturer is announcing another round of job cuts as it retools portions of its drug ingredients and nutrition businesses.

Evonik is weighing strategic options—including partnerships or divestment—for its keto and pharma amino acid production sites in Ham, France, and Wuming, China, the company said Friday. Given the “outstanding potential” of Evonik’s production sites in France and China, a closure is out of the cards, the company explained.

At the same time, Evonik will power down keto acid manufacturing in Hanau, Germany, by the end of 2025, in a move that will affect around 260 employees.

An Evonik spokesperson confirmed over email that the latest job cuts are separate from the 2,000 unveiled earlier this year.

Keto acids are used as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), while pharma amino acids and their derivatives are used in medical nutrition, cosmetics, human nutrition, drug ingredients and intermediates. The business brings in revenue of around 100 million euros ($109 million) per year, Evonik noted in a release.

Evonik’s keto and pharma amino acid rework forms part of a broader plan for the company to evolve into a “system solutions provider” focused on areas such as complex and highly potent APIs, injectable drug delivery, cell culture ingredients and “biosolutions” like lipids for mRNA and gene delivery, the company said.

“I am confident our new chapter will focus our Health Care business, and empower our customers to pioneer innovation,” Thomas Wessel, Evonik’s chief human resources officer and labor relations director, said in a statement.

Back in March, Evonik embarked on a multiyear reorganization program dubbed “Evonik Tailor Made,” which the company expects to cut costs by about 400 million euros annually by 2026. The strategy is expected to result in up to 2,000 layoffs—many in Germany—that will largely affect management, Evonik said at the time.

For all of 2023, Evonik’s sales fell 17% to 15.2 billion euros, a result the company’s CEO, Christian Kullmann, blamed on “massive, consequential changes of our economic environment.”

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