GSK and McLaren Group announce innovative strategic partnership

GSK CEO Andrew Witty and Ron Dennis, Executive Chairman of McLaren Group

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today announced that it has formed a long term strategic partnership with McLaren Group. The partnership, which will run initially until 2016, brings together two UK companies focused on innovation and high-tech research.

GSK CEO Andrew Witty and Ron Dennis, Executive Chairman of McLaren Group

Under the agreement, McLaren Group will share its widely acknowledged leading capabilities in engineering, technology, analytics, and strategy modelling, which it has developed over many years in its core business of Formula 1 motor sport, to help deliver world class performance across GSK’s global businesses. The partnership will initially focus on GSK Manufacturing, Research and Development (R&D) and Consumer Healthcare.

A new state of the art learning facility will also be built as part of the agreement, focused on developing UK engineering skills and processes. Called the ‘McLaren GSK Centre for Applied Performance’, it will be located at McLaren’s Headquarters in Woking and open in 2013. Employees from both organisations and business partners will be able to use the facility to share ideas and collaborate on joint working projects.

Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline said: “I am delighted to announce this partnership with McLaren which brings together two British companies whose continued success hinges on the ability to innovate and rapidly respond to change and competitor activity. McLaren has an unparalleled reputation for innovation built on rigorous analytics and fast decision making. This partnership is another example of GSK looking outside its sector for inspiration and fresh perspectives on how we can achieve our strategic goals in an ever more challenging and fast changing business environment.”

Ron Dennis, Executive Chairman, McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive, said: “This all-new collaboration between McLaren Group and GSK – McLaren’s first ever such association with a major pharmaceutical corporation – represents a strategic partnership that engages two great British companies at a variety of levels across a number of disciplines in a multi-faceted and ground-breaking way. Specifically, our intention is that GSK will harness McLaren’s world-beating Formula 1-bred technology, processes and operational dynamism, in order to enhance its performance across a wide variety of its divisions in a way that none of its competitors can match. In today’s challenging economic conditions, we firmly believe that innovative associations such as ours will play an increasingly significant role in ensuring that the UK remains globally competitive in the field of scientific innovation.”