Pfizer has finally found a buyer for its Sandwich site in Kent, having completed the sale to a private consortium.
The consortium, called Discovery Park Ltd, said it had bought the freehold to the site, some 18 months after Pfizer announced it was exiting the plant, which had employed 2,400 staff. However, the drugs major then decided to maintain a presence in Sandwich and will lease the space that it currently occupies on the site for 650 employees. Terms of the agreement are confidential.
The leader of Kent County Council, Paul Carter, who headed a task force set up by the Government to mitigate Pfizer’s exit from Sandwich, said that “at the time the outlook was very uncertain but we were committed to leaving no stone unturned to stimulate new business at Discovery Park”.
Noting that there are now around 1,000 people employed on the site, he noted that “we look forward to working with the new owners of Discovery Park to develop intelligent proposals to further improve the area’s attractiveness and draw in new life-sciences firms.”
