GSK Confirms Timing of Brentford Departure
Remaining staff to be moved to central London offices in 2024
The Earnshaw will become the company's new global HQ. Picture: GSK
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December 16, 2022
Pharmaceutical giant GSK has announced the location of a new global headquarters in central London.
It intends to switch staff from the Brentford site to the new building in 2024.
It says it has chosen the new building because of its closer proximity to UK capital’s fast-growing global Life Sciences hub, Knowledge Quarter and world-class academic institutions.
The site (currently known as the Earnshaw), on the corner of New Oxford Street and Earnshaw Street, is under construction and scheduled for completion next year. The space taken is over 10 floors and includes 155,000 sq ft of office space.
Emma Walmsley, CEO, GSK said, “Our new headquarters represents an important next step for GSK. As a global biopharma company, we are proud to call London our home and look forward to the opportunities for even closer collaboration with the city’s world-class science, academic and healthcare institutions. Our new headquarters will provide a fantastic new focal point for GSK people to meet, collaborate and ultimately deliver solutions for the urgent healthcare challenges facing the world.”
The new global headquarters will be the base for around 3,000 people, who will continue to use a hybrid working model. This includes GSK’s global leadership team, as well as teams supporting research and development, the supply chain, commercial operations, corporate functions and ViiV Healthcare.
GSK’s existing collaboration partners including the Francis Crick Institute and King’s College London are based nearby.
Sign now gone from GSK House in Brentford. Picture: Mike Abbott
The move marks a return for GSK to central London, from where the company can trace its origins to the Plough Court Pharmacy, which was established in the City of London, in 1715. However, it will also mark the end of the association of what used to be the Beecham Group with the area. This dates back to the 1930s and in the post-war period Brentford was a manufacturing site for many of its products including Lucozade.
The sale of GSK’s existing global headquarters site at 980 Great West Road was announced last year and is progressing. The company says that it will provide an update on the sale at a later date.
The company also has plans for a UK headquarters in Weybridge, Surrey, for Consumer Healthcare, a new company that was hived off from GSK last year with 800 staff set to move from Brentford. At the time of the announcement of the break up, there were 3,500 other staff working for the pharmaceuticals side of the business and in drug research.
GSK House was opened in 2002 by Tony Blair after the company spent £315 million on its construction.
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