New Johnson & Johnson headquarters next to Brussels airport

Diegem, 10 January 2012 - On the evening of Tuesday, January 10, the ceremonial inauguration of the new offices for the Johnson & Johnson Group in Belgium took place. The ceremony was attended by the American ambassador and the mayor of Machelen. The Leonardo building, right next to Zaventem airport, marks a major new step in the expansion of Johnson & Johnson in Belgium and is further confirmation of the key position the Belgian organizations occupy within the international Group.

A New, Future-Proof Infrastructure For The Group

Over the course of 2009, the various Johnson & Johnson companies in Belgium worked out a strategy for optimizing the infrastructure of buildings for the different sites.

In 2010, Tibotec-Virco and Janssen-Cilag Benelux/J&J Consumer relocated from Mechelen and Berchem respectively to the Janssen campus in Beerse. At the same time, a similar operation was started for the offices of the remaining Johnson & Johnson organizations in Belgium. Specifically, this involved the three sites occupied by the MD&D Group (Medical Devices & Diagnostics), namely the sites in Waterloo (Cordis European headquarters, Biosense headquarters), Dilbeek (J&J Medical and Cordis Benelux) and Sint-Stevens-Woluwe (GMED Healthcare and Ethicon), in addition to the Johnson & Johnson head office functions including the Legal Affairs, Government Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Logistics departments, which were also located at Sint-Stevens-Woluwe.

The decision was made to relocate to the former Airport Business Centre (ABC) in Diegem, close to Zaventem airport. Thorough renovations, lasting over a year and costing more than 19 million euros in investment, resulted in a new administrative center with capacity for 550 workstations and equipped with the latest meetings and communications technology. The building has now been completely finished and is already in use. Janssen Pharmaceutica financed the building and was responsible for coordination of the construction work and building management.

The American ambassador Howard W. Gutman gave a speech to mark the occasion, pointing out the major importance of Belgium for American companies as a place to invest. Direct investment by the United States in Belgium has grown in recent years to 6.3 billion dollars a year, and the figure for 2011 is expected to be similar. Johnson & Johnson is one of the biggest investors and the ambassador hoped that the opening of this new building would inspire other investors with confidence.

Dr. Ajit Shetty, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Janssen Pharmaceutica and Johnson & Johnson Corporate Vice President for the Enterprise Supply Chain, emphasized the leading role the Belgian organizations are taking with this new initiative. The Group now employs more than 5000 people in Belgium and accounts for annual investments of more than one billion euros in R&D. Leonardo (the new center’s name) will let us collaborate more effectively and efficiently, he said.

The mayor of Machelen-Diegem, Jean-Pierre De Groef, expressed his pleasure at the fact that the Johnson & Johnson Group is further consolidating its position in Belgium. And of course we are delighted they have chosen to put down roots in our municipality, he added. He pointed to the business zone’s strategic location, right next to the airport and with a high-speed train connection planned. This makes Machelen-Diegem an ideal location for international head-office functions, he stated.

Johnson & Johnson in Belgium

The Johnson & Johnson companies in Belgium play a very important part within the Group globally. The Group has had operations in Belgium since the early 1960s. The Belgian organization has now become the most diversified of Johnson & Johnson’s branches outside the United States, with more than 5000 employees and annual R&D expenditure in excess of 1 billion euros.

The Group’s operations in Belgium mainly involve chemical and pharmaceutical research and production (Beerse and Geel), global treasury services (Beerse), local and European commercial organizations (Diegem and Beerse), European head office functions, including Legal Affairs, Government Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility and international logistics (Diegem), and international distribution (Courcelles and La Louvière).

Contact: Dirk Collier, dcollier@its.jnj.com – +32 (0)14/603196