Numico To Optimize Manufacturing Platform

Numico To Optimize Manufacturing Platform

ZOETERMEER, Netherlands--Royal Numico N.V. will implement an optimization plan designed to achieve economies of scale and enhance the focus and quality of its Clinical Nutrition manufacturing platform.

The plan calls for a reduction in Numicos workforce and by 2007 will produce net cost savings of EUR5 million per year. According to the company, these cost savings will be used to finance various renovation and innovation initiatives. The improved efficiencies and enhanced focus on nutrition are part of Numicos efforts to become a high-growth, high-margin specialized nutrition company, the company added.

Numico currently uses different technologies to manufactures its Clinical Nutrition products and related Clinical Application Systems (CAS) at nine different sites. Under the new plan, each plant will focus on a limited number of technologies. For example, the factory in Zoetermeer will solely focus on the manufacturing of liquid nutrition, while the factory in Liverpool, England, will focus on the manufacture of disease-specific powder products and gluten-free breads. Due to these changes, Numico will close two gluten-free bakeries in the United Kingdom in the second half of 2005.

In line with the companys objective to focus on specialized nutrition, Numico will centralize its manufacture of generic and specialty CAS in Wuxi, China, and Châtel, Switzerland, and will sell its CAS facility in Kampen, Netherlands, before the end of 2005.

A restructuring provision of EUR2.5 million will be taken in the companys third fiscal quarter of 2004 (3Q04). The required capital is included in the previously indicated capital expenditure targets for 2004 and 2005.