Job shifts and cuts are playing out at two Orange County medical device makers.
Flextronics International Ltd., a Singapore-based contract electronics maker, said it is cutting 179 workers at its Avail Medical Products unit in Santa Ana later this month, according to a filing with the state Employment Development Department.
This is one of several rounds of cuts Avail has made.
Terumo Cardiovascular Systems Corp., a maker of devices for heart and blood vessel surgeries, said in a state filing it let go 62 people at its Tustin plant in May, though most workers ended up elsewhere in the company.
Terumo Cardiovascular’s shifts don’t appear to be driven by the economy, though California’s high business costs could have played a part.
The unit of Japan’s Terumo Corp. said last year that it was moving research and development from OC to Ann Arbor, Mich.
The latest job shifts wrapped up Terumo’s move to Michigan, spokeswoman Barbara Schmid said.
Terumo Cardiovascular said last summer that it would bring 65 jobs and a $3.5 million investment to its Ann Arbor operation under a Michigan Economic Development Corp. incentive program.
Some Terumo Cardiovascular workers moved from Tustin to Michigan, Schmid said. Others went to Terumo’s MicroVention Inc. unit, which also is in OC, she said.
MicroVention, which has 400 workers, just finished a move from Aliso Viejo into the old Terumo Cardiovascular building at 1311 Valencia Ave. in Tustin, spokeswoman Cathy Demyanovich said.
MicroVention makes catheter-based medical devices to treat cerebral aneurysms, or a ballooning of blood vessels in the brain. Its move allowed MicroVention to consolidate operations from three buildings in Aliso Viejo, Demyanovich said.
Flextronics, which makes a range of computer products, consumer electronics and medical devices under contract for other companies, is a different story.
The company has been laying off workers and closing offices,including one in Irvine last year,as it restructures.
Flextronics, which has its U.S. headquarters in San Jose, didn’t return calls for comment.
It bought Avail Medical Products last year from Ancor Capital Partners, a Fort Worth, Texas-based private equity firm, for an undisclosed price.
At the time of the deal, Avail employed about 3,500 people in Santa Ana, Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Mexico, Europe and China.
Avail is part of Flextronics’ medical division, which operates as a standalone business. Avail makes disposable, single-use medical devices, including catheters, drug delivery devices and wound management devices.
Avail, with its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, also provides design and logistics services to its customers.
The company came about through the consolidation of four companies, including Hori-zon Medical Inc., which originated in Santa Ana.
Avail bought Horizon in 2002; the company’s also been known as Horizon Medical, an Avail Company.
Avail doesn’t disclose who its customers are. Big names such as New Jersey’s Johnson & Johnson, Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc. and Abbott Laboratories of greater Chicago use contract producers for some of their products to save costs.
Avail said at the time of the Horizon deal that the combined companies served “11 of the nation’s top 15 medical products makers.”
