Wright Medical to stay in Arlington, expand facilities

After a year-long corporate campus search, Wright Medical Group, Inc., will stay put and expand its current facilities in Arlington.
    The company, a global orthopedic medical device company, is negotiating a land purchase from the town that will allow expansion room at its current campus on Airline Road.
    Company officials say it’s too early to discuss specific plans, but John Bakewell, chief financial officer, says the company’s goal is to remain in Arlington.
    “Staying in Arlington is definitely going to be our first priority,” Bakewell says.
    Wright Medical backed off a bid to purchase the Concord EFS headquarters facility in September. The 285,000-square-foot building in Goodlett Farms is still on the market after several years of vacancy.
    Wright was awarded a 12-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes in May by the Memphis and Shelby County Industrial Development Board, based on its intention to occupy the Concord facility, invest $117.7 million and add 266 new jobs paying a median wage of $60,000. PILOT officials have said the tax freeze could be transferred to another project in Shelby County, but would be adjusted if some of the plan’s specifications change.
    “It will make my decade” if Wright expands in Arlington, says Arlington mayor Russell Wiseman. Wright is the town’s largest employer with about 620 employees.
    “We are excited to once again be involved with Wright Medical and their expansion plans,” Wiseman says. “We know they have expressed a desire to stay in Arlington and are working diligently with them to make this happen.”
    Wright announced in January 2005 that it was searching for a corporate campus and revealed its plans to purchase the Concord EFS building in April at a meeting of the PILOT evaluation committee of the Industrial Development Board.
    Wright operates 74,000-square-foot manufacturing and 40,000-square-foot distribution facilities from Arlington, but needs to expand in all facets, including office space. Bakewell says the company is no longer pursuing the Concord facility after reviewing its needs.
    “It’s just a reevaluation of what it was that we actually needed to meet our facility needs for the next 10-15 years,” he says.
    Wright has had a rough six months. CEO Laurence Fairey resigned in October just two days after the company (Nasdaq: WMGI) announced that third quarter 2005 earnings would be far below even the low end of its earlier guidance. That was blamed on sales management problems in Europe that dragged down positive figures for North America.
    The company’s fourth quarter earnings declined by 68% compared to fourth quarter 2004, and year-end earnings declined by 12% to $21 million from $24 million in 2004.
    The company attributed the earnings decline to a series of one-time expenses, such as the transition to an internal foot and ankle product line, plus expense related to distribution agreements.