Dive Brief:
- Siemens Healthineers plans to lay off 300 workers amid a restructuring of the company’s diagnostics business, according to a filing last week with the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development.
- The filing represented 180 new layoffs and 120 layoffs announced in June, a Siemens spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The company also plans to consolidate some of its instrument manufacturing operations conducted in Flanders, New Jersey, to Dublin by September 2024.
- The spokesperson did not comment on whether the company expects to save money with the moves, writing that if Siemens makes any figures public, it will happen on its fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
Dive Insight:
Siemens has been restructuring its diagnostics segment after telling investors last year that the business has been burdened by inflation, logistical and supply challenges and revenue hits due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company announced it would cut costs by about 300 million euros by 2025.
Siemens is now moving forward with layoffs and plans to move some manufacturing overseas.
“Following an extensive review of the company’s diagnostics instrument manufacturing network for its laboratory solutions portfolio, we’re announcing that Siemens Healthineers will consolidate a portion of its instrument manufacturing operations in Flanders, NJ to the Swords location in Dublin, Ireland, by September 2024,” the spokesperson wrote. “This means that the current production of these products in Flanders, New Jersey, USA, will end as of that date.”
They added that the manufacturing stoppage would not impact other operations of the company’s diagnostics business in New Jersey but did not state which ones.
The news also comes amid reports from Reuters and Bloomberg that the company is weighing a potential sale of its diagnostics unit, with both outlets attributing the news to people familiar with the matter. According to the Bloomberg report, the business could be worth as much as $8 billion and attract interest from private equity.
The Siemens spokesperson told MedTech Dive that the company would not comment on market speculation.
In August, Siemens reported a 20% year-over-year revenue decline to about 1.1 billion euros for the diagnostics unit in its third quarter, citing a drop in demand for COVID-19 tests. Siemens reports its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday.