Dive Brief:
- Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Spine is laying off 67 employees at its facility in Monument, Colorado, according to an Oct. 30 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing.
- The employees will be let go between Dec. 29 and Jan. 11 2024, marking the third round of job cuts the company has announced since late July. In all, 92 positions will be eliminated.
- The cuts come as J&J focuses more on its highest-growth segments such as its knee products. “We are in a journey of improvement in orthopedics. We want to be number one and number two in every segment [where] we compete,” CEO Joaquin Duato told investors in an October earnings call.
Dive Insight:
DePuy Spine, part of J&J’s orthopedics company DePuy Synthes, began to migrate product supply from its Monument facility to a Mooresville, Indiana, distribution center in 2020 after evaluating its supply chain operations, according to a J&J MedTech spokesperson.
“This move will increase capacity for our inventory and enhance supply chain operations in support of our customers and their patients,” the spokesperson said in an email.
J&J is undergoing a two-year restructuring of its orthopedic business in a bid to improve its profitability in the sector, CFO Joe Wolk said during the October earnings call. The move includes exiting less profitable markets and product lines as part of its plan to streamline operations and cut costs.
The restructuring is expected to cost between $700 million and $800 million, including $235 million in costs during the third quarter from inventory write-downs.
This is DePuy’s third round of layoffs at the Monument facility since the summer. The company cut 15 positions in July and 10 positions in August, according to the Colorado WARN Act notice database.