PHARMACEUTICAL giant GlaxoSmithKline is expected to unveil another significant investment in Scotland today that will result in the company creating more jobs in Montrose.
Finance Minister John Swinney will announce details of the investment at the company's plant in the Angus town along with senior executives from GSK.
The investment is another vote of confidence in the company's Scottish operations 18 months after GSK announced plans to invest £100 million increasing capacity and creating around 100 jobs at its plants at Montrose and Irvine in North Ayrshire.
"It's another sign of our continuing commitment to the plants and the people that we have here. We think they play a very important role and we're going to give them more things to do," said chief financial officer Simon Dingemans in an exclusive interview.
He added: "We expect both plants to be playing a very important role for many years to come."
The company employs 270 people at Montrose making ingredients for respiratory medicines and vaccines. The 400 workers at Irvine produce ingredients for antibiotics.
Mr Dingemans did not give details of the latest investment but confirmed it is "significant".
He said Montrose had beaten off competition from plants in Europe and in emerging markets to be selected for the investment.
"The Scottish plants can deliver cost competitive products that we can sell around the world," he said.
The former investment banker said the Scottish plants have years of successful operations behind them and are in line to benefit from a historic shift in policy at GSK.
This will be studied with interest across Scottish industry.
The company has decided to retake control of a range of functions that it had outsourced, possibly overseas.
"We have been investing to allow us to insource," explained Mr Dingemans. "We like doing that because it gives us better control over production. That way we can concentrate all our activities in one place which gives us scale benefits and cost advantages, which in the pharmaceutical industry are increasingly important."
Some of the £100m funding committed last year was used to develop a new facility at Montrose which has taken over vaccine production work that had been performed by suppliers around the world.
Regarding the latest decision, Mr Dingemans said: "What is significant about it is beyond the money it will bring some more jobs but it will also bring some more capabilities. We are bringing to Montrose another bit of activity that had been previously elsewhere in the company and elsewhere in our supply network."
The Scottish plants supply ingredients used in key areas of GSK's product portfolio.
"Both of those plants are plugged into parts of the business that are seeing very good growth," said Mr Dingemans.
Asked how a vote for Scotland to become independent in the referendum next September might affect the company's view, he said: "That's really a question for the people of Scotland.
"We will continue to invest where we see expertise and skills that can contribute to the company's strategy and its overall objectives and so far Scotland has made a significant contribution."
The company has sanctioned two big investment programmes in spite of uncertainty about Scotland's future status.
Mr Dingemans praised the Scottish Government and development agencies for their support.
He also praised the UK Government for implementing measures such as the Patent Box, under which firms get tax relief on intellectual property developed in the UK.
"The UK has engaged with us as a company and the pharmaceutical industry collectively in terms of the Patent Box, which was one of the motivations bringing more investment into the UK."
Mr Dingemans said tax changes could influence the company's decision making. But GSK would not consider moving its head office to somewhere like Ireland for tax reasons.
"We are absolutely committed to the UK; we think it's a great place to operate," said Mr Dingemans.
He added: "The key to a sustainable structure is to have your activities and your substance in the same place."
The London-based company employs 15,000 people in the UK.
Almost three years after joining GSK from Goldman Sachs, Mr Dingemans said he was pleased with the progess the company has been making.
It has been developing more products and increasing its presence in emerging markets while trying to boost efficiency.
He noted GSK has won US regulatory clearance for four important new drugs in recent months, including the Breo respiratory medicine.
Following the £1.3bn sale of Lucozade and Ribena to Suntory, GSK may offload more non-core assets to free up capital.
Mega mergers are off the menu at the company, formed when GlaxoWellcome and SmithKlineBeecham combined in 2000.
"I didn't come to GSK to do M&A," said Mr Dingemans.
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