ICU Medical plans to lay off several dozen workers in the process of permanently shutting down a manufacturing facility in Minnesota.
The devicemaker laid out its layoff plans in a notice that was filed last week with the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development and the city of Oakdale’s mayor in accordance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) act, which requires certain employers to disclose mass layoffs at least two months ahead of time. The notice was shared with Fierce Medtech by a company spokesperson.
A total of 82 jobs are on the chopping block, according to the spokesperson.
The cuts are set to begin on October 19, with the layoffs continuing in phases through the end of next year. The facility, which is located in Oakdale—a suburb east of St. Paul—will be permanently closed by Dec. 31, 2024.
ICU Medical originally notified employees in March of this year about the plans to discontinue production at the facility, the spokesperson said in a statement sent to Fierce Medtech, adding, “We will work diligently to make the transition as smooth as possible for all employees, providing them with at least a 60-day notice prior to their separation date.”
ICU Medical picked up the Minnesota outpost in its recent acquisition of Smiths Medical.
That deal saw it dole out $1.85 billion in cash to pick up the Minneapolis-based company, while also offering $500 million more in ICU Medical shares and up to another $100 million based on the combined company’s stock performance. The acquisition was completed at the start of this year.
ICU Medical came to the decision to shut down the facility “after the company’s thorough analysis of its operations at the facility and the company’s larger U.S. manufacturing footprint,” it wrote in the WARN notice.
That analysis, meanwhile, comes amid a somewhat rocky financial period for the company. In 2022, though revenues grew more than 70% year over year, ICU Medical’s losses also mounted: It registered a net loss of more than $74 million for the full year, compared to net profits of more than $103 million the year prior, per 2022’s yearly earnings sheet (PDF).
So far this year, ICU Medical has been clawing its way back to black. For the first six months of the year, according to a recent earnings report (PDF), though revenues only grew a bit over 1%, the company’s net loss shrank to just under $20 million, well below the $45.5 million loss it reported at the same time last year.