Beckman Coulter And Olympus Workers Await Company Announcement

Friday, 09 December 2011 11:22

Written by Pat Flynn

Over 400 staff at two medical diagnostics plants in Clare and Galway are anxiously awaiting news of company plans which are likely to see one of the facilities close.

Beckman Coulter has operated from the Mervue Business Park in Galway for more than 3 decades and employs around 200 people.

In 2009, Beckman took over the former Olympus Diagnostics plant at Lismeahan, in Co Clare where another 200 are employed. However, earlier this year, Beckman Coulter, including both Irish plants, was purchased by US medical giant Danaher Corporation.

The Irish facilities, which have retained the Beckman Coulter name and identity, develop, manufacture and market products used in innovate complex biomedical testing.

When Beckman bought out Olympus' Life Sciences business in 2009, 40 jobs were lost at the Co Clare facility because some work carried out there was already being done in Galway.

It is now feared that as many as half of the existing positions from both plants combined, will be lost following a review of the Irish operation.

Workers were due to be informed of company plans earlier this week however staff have since been told that an announcement will be made "before the end of the week."

While Beckman leases the facility in the Mervue Business Park, the company owns the site in Co Clare which has been upgraded in recent years.

Workers in Galway fear that the operation will be centralised to Clare however workers there are equally afraid that the opposite may occur and that they will have to travel almost 80 kilometres to Mervue.

However, according to sources in Galway, the company could also be considering of divesting both plants and moving the Irish operation to a greenfield site.

"We just don't know what's going to happen but there is no doubt, if they amalgamate both plants, as many as half the jobs will have to go. They won't allow any doubling up of jobs so it's obvious that a good 200 will have to go," one longtime Beckman worker said.

While Danaher has not commented on the imminent announcement, the company confirmed in October: "As we are mindful that the environment is likely to be more challenging going forward, we anticipate increasing our previously announced fourth quarter restructuring efforts from approximately $50 million to approximately $100 million." The company added however: "This estimate excludes our ongoing cost reduction efforts at Beckman Coulter."

The company has also confirmed that it will host a live video webcast of its Annual Investor and Analyst Meeting on Wednesday next December 14th however workers in Ireland are expected to be notified of plans before then.