Significant Job Cuts Expected for Abbott

Significant job cuts are expected to be announced over the next 48 hours by leading medical devices company Abbott. Industry sources confirmed last night that a “bad news” announcement would be made soon by the company which employs 3,400 people in six locations around the country. Details of the job cuts — as a result of intense worldwide competition in the medical technologies sector — were being kept under wraps by management at Abbott. Efforts to contact company bosses late yesterday were unsuccessful. A spokesman for the IDA said the authority would not comment. But it is believed the Galway plant, Abbott Vascular Devices Ireland Ltd, is primarily in the firing line. The Galway facility manufactures stents — wire mesh tubes to prop open an artery and facilitate blood flow — at Mervue Business Park. Abbott Laboratories, based in Illinois and currently employing 65,000 worldwide, came to Ireland in 1946 with its commercial operation. In 1974, Abbott Ireland established two manufacturing facilities and has since added a further four manufacturing plants, pushing its Irish workforce to more than 3,000. Abbott Ireland is now one of the largest overseas activities of Abbott Laboratories. As well as its plant in Galway, Abbott has facilities in Clonmel, Sligo, Donegal, Longford, Cavan and Dublin. In 2002, Abbott Laboratories acquired the cardiovascular stent business of Biocompatibles International PLC in a deal to strengthen its portfolio of products. In 2005, Abbott acquired the Galway-based MedNova Ltd, which manufactured embolic filter and carotid stent products. With these acquisitions, the business in Galway was grown and there are currently 500 people employed at the Galway plant. But competitive pressures in the medical devices industry worldwide have already created difficulties for another major Galway-based manufacturer in this sector. Last month, Boston Scientific, the largest private sector employer in the west, announced it was reducing its workforce by up to 100. SOURCE: www.independent.ie