Drugmaker P&L Development to cut 60 jobs at Westbury factory
P & L Development plans to terminate about 60 employees next month at the 200 Hicks St. facility in Westbury, the company said. Credit: Newsday/James T. Madore
A local drugmaker plans to lay off dozens of employees at a factory in Westbury.
P & L Development will terminate about 60 employees next month at the 200 Hicks St. facility, said Charles Cain, the company's general counsel and chief administrative officer.
The job cuts were supposed to be larger — 94 employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filed by P & L with the state Department of Labor last month. But Cain said this week that positions had been found for about 34 employees who had been expecting to receive pink slips.
Newsday couldn't independently verify the lower number of job cuts. They represent 15% of the building's total workforce of 395 people, based on the WARN. The building also serves as the headquarters for the privately held company.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- P & L Development plans to lay off about 60 employees at a factory in Westbury.
- The job cuts were supposed to be larger but the company said positions had been found for about 34 employees who had been expecting to receive pink slips.
- The layoffs could lead the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency to claw back some of the more than $1.7 million in tax breaks that P&L has received since 2013.
P & L is among more than 160 producers of drugs and vitamins on Long Island. Together, they employ 18,000 people or the largest segment of the region's manufacturing sector, according to Long Island Bio, a trade group based in Bayport.
Several dozen drugmakers have announced expansion projects in the past few years, based on the records of Industrial Development Agencies, which are government departments that provide tax breaks.
"There is no diminution of finance or development" in the local industry, said Tom Mariner, executive director of Long Island Bio, citing conversations he had at a recent trade show.
"I would not draw a conclusion about the whole industry from what's happening at one company. This industry is still, very, very healthy," he said.
The P & L layoffs could potentially cause the Nassau County IDA to claw back some of the more than $1.7 million in tax aid received by the company since 2013. Records show that P & L hasn't met its job commitment of 706 employees in return for the IDA assistance in at least six years.
P & L and IDA are in negotiations about the future of the incentive package, their representatives told Newsday.
Cain, the P & L executive, said the company is making changes in how the Hicks Street factory operates "to match projected retailer and consumer demand" for its products.
The company supplies cough and cold remedies, allergy medicine, digestive products, analgesics and other medicine to retail chains such as CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Target, Costco and Sam’s Club.
Layoffs at South Carolina factories
Last month, P & L laid off about 60 employees at its factory in Piedmont, South Carolina, according to a company announcement.
In January, a factory and warehouse in Clinton, South Carolina, were closed and work moved to Piedmont and a facility in California. More than 100 employees lost their jobs, South Carolina officials said.
In Nassau County, the Hicks Street operation is one of two that P & L has in Westbury. A third, on Cantiague Rock Road, has been rented to a Queens-based drugmaker since last year because P & L no longer needed the space with many of its employees working remotely at least part of each week, Newsday has previously reported.
Cain said P & L is “very committed” to the Hicks Street factory and continuing to operate on Long Island.
Besides its Westbury locations, the company has three buildings in Copiague, where a total of 117 people worked in 2023, according to IDA records.
The Westbury buildings won tax breaks from the Nassau IDA in 2013 for a $9.1 million expansion. The incentives end in 2034, the records show.
In return for the tax aid, P & L promised to preserve 606 jobs and add 100. However, that commitment has only been fulfilled once between 2015 and 2023 — in 2017, when 752 people were employed in Westbury, according to the records.
Cain said IDA officials are being kept apprised of “our local employment status.”
Sheldon L. Shrenkel, the IDA’s CEO and executive director, said the agency and P & L are in talks to reach “a mutually agreeable arrangement to ensure P & L’s continued presence in [Nassau] and maximize its employment.”
James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.
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