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The gap left by the closure of Pfizer’s Sandwich base in east Kent has sparked warnings that recovery could take ten years.
Councillor Paul Carter of Kent County Council has said that although there had been interest in the site, it could take a decade for the region to recover from thousands of job losses.
The drugs giant announced in February that only 350 jobs would be saved out of the 2,400 employees at the facility.
Pfizer has said it will “continue to actively market” the site as ‘Discovery Park’ with its brokers. John Westwood, Real Estate Director at Pfizer, says “there has been interest, and we are continuing to pursue those avenues”.
But Councillor Carter has warned a buyer would need to be patient and allow time for the site to deliver results.
After the closure was announced, a task force of politicians was set up to support new business and employment on the Pfizer site.
Laura Sandys, Conservative MP, South Thanet, and a member of the task force, attacked the pharma giant for the speed of the redundancies: “Pfizer is exiting or creating redundancies too quickly for us to be able to secure that finance and that investment from private sector companies.”
Pfizer said there will be a phased exit of the site in Ramsgate Road by 2012. The site was put on the market in June.
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