Business growth prompts expansion of Scottish pharma company’s HQ

Borders-based specialty pharmaceutical company, Kyowa Kirin International plc (KKI), is to expand its headquarters facility in Galashiels to accommodate the growth of the business.
The news comes as KKI reports record turnover of £251m for 2016, growth of 13% over 2015 revenues of £222m.
KKI (formerly known as ProStrakan) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., the research-based life sciences company, with special strengths in biotechnologies.
KKI has acquired a 10 year lease to the 10,000 square feet building adjacent to its existing headquarters in Galashiels Business Park and has gained planning permission for the construction of a link building that will create a combined total footprint of 35,000 square feet – an increase of 40% over its current facility.
Once construction of the link building has been completed, KKI plans to refurbish its existing headquarters building. Work is expected to be complete by the Autumn of 2017 following which KKI will have created a state of the art headquarters complex capable of housing 200 employees. KKI’s property advisers for the project are Eric Young & Co, with design work being undertaken by design consultants, Cubit3D and project management by PMP.
Lucy Alkin-Young, KKI’s office manager, who is project managing the development, said:
“We’ve been growing so fast that we were simply running out of room in our existing head office, so the expansion is being welcomed by the whole team. Our extended facility will provide us with a headquarters that is appropriate for an international pharmaceutical company.”
Dr. Tom Stratford, President and CEO of KKI, said:
“This development underlines our commitment to Galashiels and to Scotland as an excellent location from which to operate a truly international pharmaceutical business.
“The business is growing at pace and we are proud of what we have achieved since joining Kyowa Hakko Kirin in 2011. Our turnover has grown from £105m to £251m in that time, overall staff numbers have more than doubled to stand at almost 600 today and we recently filed for European approval of the first of Kyowa Hakko Kirin’s pipeline products.”

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