EXCLUSIVE: Bayer to leave Newbury

Company on the move after 32 years in town

BAYER is leaving its European headquarters in Newbury after 32 years in the town and moving to Reading, the NWN can exclusively reveal.

The company is in negotiations to relocate 470 employees from its current headquarters in Strawberry Hill – its home since October 1983 – to a site in Green Park just off junction 11 of the M4.

Speaking exclusively to the NWN on Tuesday, Bayer’s head of communications for the UK and Ireland, Simon Greenstreet, said: “We’ve been here 30 years and will feel terribly sad to leave.”

Bayer admitted it would have preferred to stay in Newbury and drew up a shortlist of six potential sites in the town during a four-year search – but they were all considered either inappropriate or undeliverable within the timescale.

For the full story and reaction, see this week’s Newbury Weekly News, out today.