Alcon Labs is moving about 100 positions from Atlanta to Fort Worth as the company consolidates its eye-care headquarters operations.
The move follows the acquisition of Alcon by Switzerland-based Novartis in April. As part of the merger, Alcon became the Novartis eye-care division, incorporating the company's Ciba Vision and Novartis Ophthalmics units. Nestle had had majority ownership of Alcon.
The jobs moving to Fort Worth are in marketing and other administrative functions that were part of Atlanta-based Ciba Vision, which produces contact lenses and lens-care products, said Bettina Maunz, Alcon's vice president of corporate communications. Ciba Vision's contact lens manufacturing and research operations will remain in Atlanta, Maunz said Tuesday.
Alcon has been based in Fort Worth since its founding in 1945. It employs about 22,000 people, including about 2,400 at its campus just south of Interstate 20 and east of Interstate 35W, Maunz said.
In a presentation Tuesday to a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce lunch group, Franck Leveiller, vice president of research and development for Alcon, said the company expects to spend $4 billion on research in the next five years. He also said the company expects to double sales in the next decade.
With the consolidation of the other Novartis eye-care operations in Alcon, the company's operations will be divided among surgical instruments, pharmaceuticals and contact lenses, said Leveiller, who was named to his position in June.
Alcon reported sales of $5 billion in the year's first six months, up 11 percent from a year ago, according to Novartis' latest earnings release. It contributed $1.8 billion in operating income during the period, up 10 percent.
Novartis reported $28.9 billion in sales and $6.9 billion in net income during the first six months.
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