Serologicals Corp. won’t bring its Lawrence plant up to full production until next year, and up to 20 of its employees are paying the price.

The Atlanta-based company laid off 19 of its 26 employees in Lawrence on Monday, the same day it announced that the $28 million biosciences plant would be unable to manufacture full loads of its signature Ex-Cyte product, which promotes cell growth, for at least nine months.

The plant has produced 1,650 liters for testing but will have to wait before ramping up to 110,000 liters a year as pharmaceutical companies and other biosciences operations run their own tests.

“We’re not in a position to be able to build a large amount of inventory and hope it passes,” said Bud Ingalls, Serologicals vice president for finance and chief financial officer. “We have to get through this process before we can commence full manufacturing operations.”

The plant — considered the crown jewel of Lawrence’s bioscience economic-development efforts — had been expected to start making Ex-Cyte for customer use at the end of the month.

The plant is equipped to make enough Ex-Cyte to produce $60 million in sales, double the company’s current sales volume for the product.

The affected employees, all involved in manufacturing processes, were offered severance packages and outplacement services, Ingalls said. Employees are being offered retention bonuses, should they agree to rejoin the company later on.

“We’re going to need the same people we have today and more,” Ingalls said.

One of the workers who was laid off, who asked not to be identified, said employees were offered two months’ of severance pay.

6News video: Serologicals will lay off several employees

“All I was told, and all we’ve been told — up until late last week — is there were three products coming in, that so many more people were being hired soon, and more in August,” the former employee said. “This was a blow to everybody.”

Lynn Parman, vice president for economic development at the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said Monday’s layoffs would not affect the community’s ability to reap benefits from its granting of a tax abatement, with the expectation that 47 high-paying jobs would be created.

It’ll just take a little longer.

“They’ve still made a very sizable investment in the community, and they’re going to be here for the long-term future,” Parman said.