Novartis is one of Nuremberg’s largest employers. The Swiss biotechnology and pharmaceutical group has in the Franconian metropolis its Germany headquarters. About a year and a half ago the City of Nuremberg known that the company will move its premises from Roonstraße to the so-called Güterwerk on the medium term “Kohlhof Business Campus” will relocate. According to the city, the city leaders had previously met on many channels for the whereabouts of Novartis in Nuremberg used: “We fought – and made it,” said Mayor Marcus König (CSU) at the time in November 2021. “A large company with attractive jobs remains in the city.”
The completion of the new Güterwerk building and the handover of the rental space to the anchor tenant Novartis are planned for the second half of 2024. In the current year, however, there are now major job cuts. In addition to Germany-wide job cuts also for Nuremberg appropriate measures are planned. “The management of Novartis Germany has contacted the group works council a new organizational structure agreed,” said a spokesman for the pharmaceutical giant on Wednesday (May 3, 2023). inFranken.de.
Novartis merges business units – employees in Nuremberg also lose their previous jobs
According to its own statement, Novartis is a global group, which focuses on “innovative, prescription and generic drugs”. The background to the recently decided job cuts is therefore the Merging of two company divisions. The previous respective business units “Pharmaceuticals” and “Oncology” have now been merged into the joint business unit “Innovative Medicines”. “The new structure and organization will support Novartis’ strategy as a focused medicines company and the next phase regarding Innovation, growth and productivity drive forward,” says the company spokesman.
The measure subsequently affects the Novartis employees out of. “Since the new structure will be both leaner and simpler, the agreement provides for Germany to be completed by the end of the year around 300 positions According to him, Novartis Innovative Medicines employed around 2,700 people in Germany at the end of last year. The restructuring is part of the global realignment of Novartis announced in April 2022, in which around 8,000 jobs would be cut worldwide According to the company, this step was initiated “to strengthen competitiveness”.
As the press secretary opposite inFranken.de declared, come it also in Nuremberg led to a reduction in jobs. Nationwide, employees were informed on April 20 about the forthcoming program and the agreement with the works council. How many jobs will actually be lost at the Nuremberg location is nonetheless still unclear.
Novartis spokesman: “Operational layoffs should be avoided as far as possible”
“Novartis will conduct the process with the utmost care and respect for all potentially affected employees,” said a statement from Novartis Pharma GmbH. The plan is to work individually with all employees in order to support them “in their specific needs”. “As far as possible, operational layoffs avoided,” explains the company. Like many people in their previous jobs at the Novartis site in Nuremberg will lose, ultimately the future will tell.
Meanwhile, there is a shop closure in downtown Nuremberg. A well-known grocer is closing its last branch in Franconia there. It’s over in about a week and a half.
