Passage to India

Plans to close Watson Pharmaceuticals, one of Putnam County’s largest employers, continue as the company has announced a new round of layoffs. Watson, which is transferring its Carmel workload to Goa, India, as well as two U.S. locations, will be leaving Putnam next year and county officials are hopeful that a new tenant can be found for the corporation’s 110,000-square-foot Carmel plant.

Forty-two of the 155 employees still at the plant along Stoneleigh Avenue in Carmel received pink slips advising their positions will be terminated on Dec. 31. The latest round of layoffs follows the dismissal of more than 200 workers in Carmel last summer.

Kevin Bailey, president of the non-forprofit Putnam County Economic Development Corporation, anticipates the 27-acre Carmel site, consisting of a manufacturing plant as well as a distribution center in Southeast, that closed over the summer would be available for viewing by potential buyers during the first quarter of 2010. Legislator Mary Ellen Odell of Carmel, who last year served as chairwoman of the Economic Development Committee, told the Courier: “For every door that closes another one opens. Putnam recently was awarded an Empire Zone. which will also help tremendously to attract a new company to the site. I feel terrible for the employees who will be losing their jobs, but Putnam must remain positive and confident since this locale is most desirable to locate a large company.”

Bailey addressed the Empire Zone designation: “We are talking about new jobs and business being attracted to the county, receiving substantial tax benefits. I am convinced the Empire Zone will allow us to attract a new corporation into the Watson Building when the time comes since the Carmel site is already zoned for industrial use.”

Paul Bisaro, president and CEO of Watson, explained his company’s decision to close the Carmel plant cutting more than 600 jobs was extremely difficult: “Given the current facilities, the capacity of those facilities, the technology used today, and the age of our plant, Carmel was the logical choice.”

Bisaro said manufacturing would be relocated to existing plants in Corona, CA, Davie, FL, and to a new facility that recently opened on the west coast of India. The site in Goa is one of three Watson facilities that will shoulder the manufacturing load once the Carmel site closes.

Watson spokeswoman Patty Eisenhauer said the Carmel plant manufactures capsules and tablets of generic drugs: “At one time, the plant manufactured more than 50 different products but that number has declined substantially as our operations have shifted to other facilities.”

Putnam Legislature Chairman Tony Hay of Southeast said the departure of Watson Pharmaceuticals was “upsetting for county government. Many of those employees shop locally, which will result in a further decline in sales tax revenue. America has to wake up. Products are being outsourced overseas in large numbers. We find ourselves behind the eight ball when it comes to illegal aliens infiltrating the U.S. Once again a lack of American ingenuity has resulted in a large company deciding to manufacture its product in a far off land for a much cheaper rate.”

Ironically, Uncle Sam is assisting Watson with its move to India, since employees now qualify for a special package of job training and other benefits as a result of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Package—an initiative expanded in February under the stimulus program.

The stimulus spending plan covers 100 percent of qualified relocation expenses plus a lump sum payment of $1,500 to employees who decide to relocate halfway around the globe.

Eisenhauer said her company had offered jobs to employees who wish to work at Watson’s facilities both in and outside of the U.S.

The company announced its Carmel shutdown in its fourth quarter 2007 earnings release when the firm reported a loss of $489 million the year before. According to county, town and school records, Watson paid $299,000 in municipal and school taxes in 2008.