Kenneth Fox
Teva Pharmaceuticals has confirmed plans to close its Sudocrem production plant in Dublin with the loss of more than 100 jobs.
As The Irish Times reports, the company told staff at the facility in Baldoyle of its plan, which involved closing the plant by the end of 2022 and moving production to Bulgaria.
Sudocrem has been produced in Baldoyle since the 1940s.
“Yesterday we met with employees at our Baldoyle plant to inform them of the proposed closure of the site, as part of a wider programme to optimise our global manufacturing network. We know that this news is disappointing for many, but we’ll do everything we can to support all our affected employees throughout this process, a spokesman for Teva said.
“We’ll continue to have a strong presence in Ireland through our respiratory manufacturing plant in Waterford in addition to our commercial activities, and we remain fully committed to the Irish market,” he added.
Sudocrem, which has been a household staple in Ireland for 90 years is now available in over 40 countries with an estimated 34.5 million pots sold each year.
The product was recently in the news when pop star Madonna was pictured with a pot of it in the background of a photo posted on Twitter.
Thomas Smith, a professor of pharmacy and a retail pharmacist in Dublin, created the nappy rash cream in the back of his shop at 1 Old Cabra Road and originally packaged it in glass jars. He moved his operation to a larger premises in Baldoyle in the 1940s, owing to Sudocrem’s ever-growing popularity.
The balm was originally called Smith’s Cream, and later was changed to Soothing Cream, which came to be pronounced as ‘Sudocrem’ by Dubliners.
Teva acquired Sudocrem as part of its multimillion euro deal for Actavis in 2016. It subsequently closed a testing labs in Dundalk, but still operates a manufacturing plant in Waterford that employs about 500 people.
