The Skipton site manufactures a comprehensive range of products, across solid dosage forms of tablets and capsules, liquids, creams and ointments and terminally sterilised, principally for CAP. The site employs 250 people, is licensed by the VMD and FDA and includes a Pharmaceutical Product Development laboratory.

In 2021 the Board approved the first of a three phase development plan, and the site has recently embarked on its implementation. The investment of £5.7 million included the expansion of the site footprint through the acquisition and refurbishment of a neighbouring building. This has enabled the site to increase volumes by transferring product previously manufactured at third party contract manufacturers and the introduction of new products. It has also delivered a number of other key benefits, namely:

• more efficient material storage and workflow around the site, with segregation of traffic types providing improved levels of employee protection;
• enhanced sustainability credentials, through the installation of photovoltaic cells and increased levels of insulation;
• further improved levels of quality and security compliance;
• better work environment for employees and visitors; including open plan office areas, welfare facilities, meeting rooms, visitors reception, training facilities, a collaboration space and increased parking and EV charging facilities;
• a new Quality Control laboratory with increased footprint and modernised facilities, fixtures and fittings; and
• expansion and refurbishment of the Product Development laboratory and pilot facilities.

As well as the physical changes to site, the team has also led the way in adopting new ways of working by implementing a 36 hour week with revised start and finish times to facilitate a nine day fortnight (further information can be found in Stakeholder Engagement: Employees). These improvements are part of the site’s ambition to build a great place to work which attracts and retains a talented workforce and provides them with the facilities and culture in which they can thrive.

Phase 1 was completed in August 2023 and was delivered to budget with no disruption to product supply. This is testament to the dedication of the team involved, both Dechra employees and the locally based contractors who have contributed to the success of the project.

As Phase 1 ends the focus turns to Phase 2, which will involve the installation of the next generation of processing equipment to provide Skipton with further levels of capacity, capability and compliance to support growth in volumes and revenue, and will position the Skipton site as the ‘centre of excellence’ for solid dose supply.

On 21 July 2023, Dechra acquired Piedmont Animal Health Inc, a Greensboro, North Carolina based company specialising in the development and approval of novel products for the companion animal market. This strategic acquisition added several complementary and innovative CAP products to Dechra’s PDRA pipeline, a team of 18 development experts and an in-house laboratory with early stage development capability. The primary goal of the transition was to preserve the development and approval timelines for the pipeline products whilst simultaneously assimilating the Greensboro team into the Dechra systems and ways of working. To achieve this objective, we approached the integration from three angles:

Seamless transition of the legal and financial processes that support development work
While early stage investigative work was done in-house, Piedmont partnered with contract development organisations to fully develop and obtain product approvals. Within three months of acquisition, all existing Piedmont suppliers and open purchase orders were successfully transitioned into Oracle and the team was leveraging Dechra systems and processes to pay for development work. Further, this workstream necessitated close interaction with the Dechra legal and finance teams; as a result the Greensboro team mastered Dechra processes for new quotation and contract review and execution, as well as supplier approval and set-up within Oracle.

Enable the Greensboro team to successfully operate within the greater Dechra network
The integration lead worked closely with personnel across several divisions to map out the roles and responsibilities of each department, how each department would interact with Greensboro and to set up introductory calls or in-person visits. This included, but was not limited to Quality, HSE, Product Launch, Labelling, External Network and Marketing. This enabled the Greensboro team to understand which departments they needed to work with for the various scopes of work and to form relationships with key stakeholders across the business.