Garden Grove-based Hycor Biomedical Inc. is moving its headquarters from Garden Grove to Indianapolis.
Hycor, which makes and sells tests for autoimmune diseases, allergies and urinalysis for laboratories, hospitals and doctors, plans to lease temporary space in Indianapolis as it seeks a permanent site for operations there.
The company was offered up to $640,000 in tax credits by Indiana state officials based on Hycor’s job creation plans.
• Headquarters: Garden Grove, moving to Indianapolis
• Business: medical testing equipment, supplies
• Founded: 1981
• Went public: 1983
• Acquired: 2004 by Stratagene Corp., later Agilent
• 2010: acquired by private equity firm Linden
Jobs
Hycor’s move is expected to create 12 jobs by the end of the year and up to 20 by 2013, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
Besides economic incentives, Indiana’s “central location” led Hycor to relocate, said Chief Executive Richard Aderman.
Hycor competes with several larger companies, including Brea-based Beckman Coulter Inc.
The company has a long history.
Two Center for Disease Control scientists in Atlanta started the company in 1981 as a research and development company named Hybridoma Sciences.
Hycor got into medical testing in 1984, a year after the company went public.
Early on, Hycor focused on urinalysis as a way to screen for diseases and drug abuse.
In the 1990s, the company shifted its attention to allergy testing with 1991’s buy of Portland, Ore.-based Ventrex Laboratories.
Hycor peaked in size in the early 1990s, with some $30 million in yearly sales and nearly 200 local employees.
A decade later, Hycor had about $20 million in yearly sales and about 100 local employees.
In 2000, Hycor hired an adviser to look at a potential sale of the company. The effort was called off a couple years later.
Sale
Hycor eventually was sold in 2004 to La Jolla biotechnology company Stratagene Corp. In 2007, Santa Clara’s Agilent Technologies Inc. bought Stratagene and Hycor as a subsidiary.
Last year, Chicago-based private equity firm Linden LLC acquired Hycor from Agilent.
