Dive Brief:
- Haemonetics will close a facility in Covina, California, ending the employment of about 75 people if none find other jobs within the company, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter filed with the state.
- Employees have the option to look for other jobs in the company, Haemonetics said in the Oct. 22 letter provided to MedTech Dive by the state. Among those affected by the site closure are 26 people who hold assembler positions, the letter shows.
- Supervisors for the chemistry lab, warehouse and production, as well as several technicians and engineers, also face layoffs amid the closure, which is effective Dec. 31.
Dive Insight:
Boston-based Haemonetics, which makes technologies used in blood and plasma collection, transfusions and electrophysiology procedures, is reshaping its product portfolio to accelerate growth.
The company decided late last year to discontinue the ClotPro analyzer system in its hospital business and some products in its blood center business and close certain facilities, according to a securities filing this month.
A Haemonetics spokesperson, in an email Wednesday, said the company made the decision to rationalize its whole-blood inline collection products and associated manufacturing operations.
“Over the course of 2024, Haemonetics has reached out to our customers and been proactively involved in their planning to transition to alternative products offered by our company where available, and in other cases to products offered by third parties,” the spokesperson wrote. “Recently, we provided notice to employees at our Covina manufacturing facility regarding the cessation by Haemonetics of manufacturing operations at this location, and we are committed to supporting them through this transition.”
Haemonetics said in the securities filing that it incurred $9.4 million in restructuring-related costs in the six months ended Sept. 28.
Haemonetics is also revamping its offerings through acquisitions. Earlier this year, the company bought Attune Medical for $160 million upfront, plus additional milestone payments. Attune makes a device to protect the esophagus from injury during radiofrequency cardiac ablation procedures.
Last December, Haemonetics completed the $253 million acquisition of OpSens, whose pressure-sensing guidewires are used in percutaneous coronary intervention and transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures.
Haemonetics CFO James D’Arecca, on an earnings call last week, said the company was “well-positioned” to use additional capital for purposes including organic investments, M&A, share buybacks and debt repayment.
Medtech companies have eliminated tens of thousands of positions over the past two years in restructuring initiatives, according to a MedTech Dive analysis of state WARN notices from across the country.
