Cook Medical Opens New Facility in Illinois

Cook Medical has opened a new medical device manufacturing plant in Canton, Ill. The opening ceremony was held on Friday August 31, when Cook Medical President Kem Hawkins joined national and local dignitaries to dedicate the $19 million production plant that will add another 60 high-skilled jobs to the local economy. The new facility joins an existing $20 million Cook factory in Canton that opened two years ago.

“At Cook, we have always believed in reinvesting revenues earned here and abroad in new manufacturing facilities that create jobs for people, while ensuring that the Cook organization continues to grow,” said Hawkins. “Over nearly 50 years, Cook has reinvested more than $1.5 billion dollars in plants across the United States and in key facilities overseas that now employ 10,000 people. And we hope circumstances will allow us to continue that tradition.”

The new 60,000-square-foot Canton facility will manufacture polytetrafluoroethylene (commonly known as PTFE) tubing used in a broad variety of the 16,000 different medical devices Cook makes. The highly technical, equipment-driven manufacturing plant is intended to capitalize on the existing mechanical and maintenance knowledge of workers in the Canton area. Some employees formerly worked for the large International Harvester plant that once employed 3,000 people in Canton before it was closed in 1983, raising local unemployment to 17 percent. The city was selected for the new Cook plants because in addition to its ready workforce, it was the boyhood home of the late Cook Group founder Bill Cook, who wanted to help revive his hometown.

As of June 2012, the Canton unemployment rate was at 9.6 percent, 1 percentage point higher than the national rate of unemployment. State officials are hopeful Cook will help lower this number further in the coming months.

Canton Mayor Kevin Meade said he’s “amazed” at the impact the tubing plant, along with the sister plant Cook opened there two years ago that now employs more than 100 skilled workers making angiographic catheters, has had on his economically challenged community.

“It doesn’t take a huge plant with thousands of jobs to make a real impact,” the mayor said. “Even a few hundred good jobs are enough to help a town the size of Canton turn itself around.”

According to Meade, since Cook Canton opened, the local hospital, Graham Hospital, has invested over $40 million in a new clinic and upgrades to their existing facilities. A hospital spokesperson told Medical Product Outsourcing that the expansions were not directly related to the presence of Cook, and that the plans would have gone ahead as planned regardless. However, she did say that the hospital is “grateful for Cook’s presence.”

In addition, a number of new retail stores have opened and local businesses have been able to expand. After years of no new housing permits, the city also has experienced a housing boom with a new 42-unit apartment complex being built along with 16 new home construction permits having been issued.

Also present at the opening was U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

“I’ve been impressed with the company’s commitment to the hometown of its founder and am thrilled that Cook Medical is continuing to invest in Illinois workers and the community of Canton,” said Durbin. “While Canton has struggled economically in recent years, the quality of its workforce has remained strong. The good-paying jobs created with this new investment will have a ripple effect in terms of economic activity far outside the doors of its facilities as new workers make home improvements they’ve postponed, buy meals and clothing, and contribute to the area’s economy, which is on its way to thriving once again.”

Cook intends to work toward employing at least 350 people. Parent company Cook Group also has invested more than $15 million in Canton’s downtown square, building a new 32-room boutique hotel and buying and improving a shopping mall and other properties.

Cook Group has also announced plans to expand in Pittsburgh, Pa. Cook MyoSite Inc., a biotechnology company located in Pittsburgh that develops cellular therapies to treat disorders of the body naturally, hopes to expand its workforce to more than double its current size by 2015. The goal for the end of this year is for Cook MyoSite to hire 12-15 new employees.

Founded in 1963, Cook Medical produces a wide range of medical devices. Its headquarters are in Bloomington, Ind., which is also where Cook Group is based.

Photo of the new Cook Medical Canton location courtesy of Cook Medical.