Roche Launches New Initiative - 'Roche Goes to Town'

Designed to Build Deeper Community Connection and Stimulate Local Business Growth

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Sep 20, 2010, 09:00 ET

NUTLEY, N.J., Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to stimulate local business activity and encourage its employees to build a deeper connection with the communities in which they work, today, Roche, in partnership with the North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce/Clifton Economic Develop Assistance Commission (CEDAC) and the Nutley Chamber of Commerce (NCoC), is launching the "Roche Goes to Town" program in Nutley and Clifton, New Jersey.

Roche has provided each of its full-time New Jersey employees with $25 "Roche Dollars" to spend at local businesses beginning today through October 3. Participating businesses are displaying posters in their storefront windows, so they are easily identifiable to Roche employees. The businesses will later be reimbursed by Roche with U.S. currency.

"It is important for our employees to feel a strong connection to the communities in which they work, and a fun way to do this is to encourage them to patronize the local businesses," said Roche CFO and Nutley Site Head Ivor Macleod. "We adopted this program from Genentech in South San Francisco (U.S. pharmaceutical headquarters for Roche) where it has been very successful for many years. Our goal is to make this an annual event at Roche in New Jersey and we hope that it expands each year."

The roughly 2,500 Roche Nutley employees will begin exploring the local businesses in Nutley and Clifton and start shopping with their Roche dollars today. After becoming more familiar with the local businesses, Roche hopes that its employees will continue to patronize them for years to come.

"The Nutley small business owners that I've spoken to are all so grateful to Roche for launching this very generous program in our town," said Vincent Lo Curcio III, President of the Nutley Chamber of Commerce (NCoC). "Exposing Roche employees to what Nutley has to offer will be a great boost to our local economy." The NCoC represents 230+ local businesses, professionals and civic organizations and has recently launched its own similar "shop local" awareness campaign entitled Love Nutley – Shop Nutley appealing to its residents and Nutley's small, hometown character and charm.

"Roche has been an active member of our Chamber of Commerce for over 60 years and we are really excited about this new program, which is designed to promote and support local businesses. It could not come at a better time," said Gloria Martini, President, North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce.

"Roche is deeply dedicated to the communities in which it does business. So, this is a great opportunity for us to partner with our hometowns and raise employee awareness of the many wonderful, diverse local establishments available in our own neighborhood," said Roche Director of Corporate Relations and Contributions Patricia Hughes. "At Roche, we place great emphasis on advancing all the components – social, educational, medical and business – that contribute to a healthy community."

For more information about Roche Goes to Town or the company's community involvement, visit http://www.rocheusa.com/portal/usa/roche_goes_to_town.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2009, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D ($9.1B US). The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs ($45.1B US). Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com or www.roche-nutley.com.

SOURCE Roche