Bayer officials break ground on $43.6 million expansion project to Myerstown facility
Despite continuous rain turning it into a muddy ceremony, Bayer officials broke ground on a $43.6 million expansion project for the Myerstown plant.
The expansion will increase packaging and production areas by 70,000 square feet, according to officials. The space will include room for eight packaging lines and a future area for rooftop solar panels.
The company is looking to hire 75 people for construction purposes for the new facility. Once the construction is completed, the company could hire up to 75 new employees.
"We continue to hire for the (Myerstown) factory as we continue to expand our operations, and when the building gets built, we will hire additional people on top," Michael Sullivan, Bayer's vice president of product supply for North America, said.
More than 630 full-time Bayer employees operate out of the Myerstown facility which manufactures over the counter brands that include aspirin, Aleve and Claritin, according to officials. The current site is spread over 68 acres with over half a million square feet of manufacturing space.
On average, employees who work at the facility stay there for 15 years.
"Building a $43 million building is an anchor activity," Sullivan said. "We have 60 acres of land, and we're only using a fraction of that land right now. So it does open up the opportunity over a long period of time to be continually expanding."
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In 2021, the facility manufactured 14.1 billion tablets, 3.9 million liquid liters and 169.1 million packaged units of product on site, Bayer officials said in a news release.
Some equipment will be moved from the existing building once the new addition is finished, but Sullivan said that the point of the new building is to expand.
"With Myerstown having grown over 75 years in some of the buildings we have, we've built some additional buildings," he said. "The fact is that we've put a lot of stuff in a tight building now, so this will be an opportunity for us to streamline the operations, make them a little more straight forward."
In October, Bayer officials celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Myerstown facility. Officials said a majority of the workers live within 25 mile radius of the plant.
"It's not just a factory, we're part of a broader community," he said. "Everybody who works here knows someone in the community, everyone in the community knows someone who works here. It's a tight thread."
Bayer officials anticipate the project will be completed in 2025.
Those looking for more information about the jobs at the Bayer Myerstown plant can go online at Careers.Bayer.US.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth.
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Bayer breaks ground on $43.6 million expansion to Myerstown facility
