SLOW AND STEADY
Device Makers Post 2% Gain in Jobs, Despite Cuts at No. 1 Beckman Coulter
By VITA REED
Orange County’s largest medical device companies notched another year of slow, steady growth in the past 12 months.
The county’s 25 largest device and instrument makers reported an overall job gain of 230 workers, or 2%, for a total of 10,431 workers, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
Last year, the largest medical device makers grew workers by 3%. This year’s group employs about a hundred more people than last year’s,or 1% more,thanks to growth at a couple of companies and two new entries.
That helped offset the loss of Tyco International Ltd., which is closing its Irvine plant. Tyco ranked No. 12 last year with 250 OC workers, a tally now down to just 30 with closure of the Irvine site due by year’s end.
On a global basis, the 25 companies on this year’s list saw employment fall 5% to 345,035 people.
The list reflects OC’s role as a medical device hub since the 1960s, when pioneers Miles “Lowell” Edwards, Jim Bentley and Don Shiley set up shop here alongside Beckman Instruments Inc., which moved to OC in the 1950s.
Fullerton-based Beckman, now Beckman Coulter Inc., retained its historical No. 1 spot on this year’s list with 2,292 workers in Fullerton and Brea.
Beckman held the top spot despite a 2% drop in workers. In January, officials detailed plans to cut 300 jobs across the company after two business units slumped late last year. Beckman makes testing and research gear for medical laboratories, drug makers, universities and other researchers.
Beckman’s decline and more hiring helped No. 2 Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp. gain some ground, though it’s still more than 600 jobs shy of Beckman.
Edwards, a maker of heart valves and other cardiovascular products, grew OC employment by 5%, or 73 people, for a total of 1,673 people.
No. 3 B. Braun Medical Inc., an Irvine maker of intravenous solutions and delivery systems that’s part of Germany’s B. Braun Melsungen AG, grew local workers by 1% to 1,228 people.
B. Braun’s highlights in the past year included the introduction of Duplex, a drug delivery system produced in a super-sterile area of its Irvine campus.
The company spent some $100 million to develop Duplex, according to Chief Executive Caroll Neubauer.
No. 4 Alcon Laboratories Inc., a unit of Nestle SA that has a large Irvine operation, reported flat job growth with 580 local workers. Alcon makes eye drugs, surgical products and instruments. Alcon is in its second year as a public company after Nestle spun off a quarter of its shares in early 2002.
Alcon competes with No. 8 Advanced Medical Optics Inc. of Santa Ana in contact lens care and eye surgical products. Advanced Medical spun off from Allergan Inc. in mid-2002 and saw local employment grow 12% to 364 people in the past year.
Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., a rival to Edwards, saw its OC workforce fall 6% to 500 workers. The job losses came about as part of Medtronic’s consolidation of some smaller plants into larger “centers of excellence” around the country, said Bob Hanvik, a spokesman for the device maker’s cardiac surgery business. Medtronic’s products include Mosaic, Freestyle and Hancock II bioprosthetic heart valves.
The largest job gain by percentage belonged to No. 6 Avail Medical Products Inc.’s Santa Ana plant. The contract medical device maker reported a 32% job gain to 420 workers.
When Avail acquired Horizon in 2002, officials said the company’s Santa Ana plant would take on more design work. This marks the second year of growth in Santa Ana since the buy. Avail is growing as more big device makers contract out engineering and production of some products to save money.
In all, 15 of the 25 companies on the list reported job gains. Seven reported losses and two reported no change.
Numbers for No. 23 MP Biomedicals Inc. in Irvine,the former diagnostics gear and supplies business of ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. bought this year by ousted ICN founder Milan Panic,are Business Journal estimates.
Beckman accounted for the largest number of lost jobs at 48.
As for the rest of the top 10 companies on the list, No. 7 Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. of Orange saw its local jobs drop 3% to 389 workers. No. 9 SensorMedics Corp., a Yorba Linda-based maker of ventilators and other respiratory devices, reported no change at 325 local workers. The company is part of Viasys Healthcare Inc. of Conshohocken, Penn.
Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc., a Tustin-based maker of CT scanners and other medical imaging equipment, came in at No. 10 on this year’s list, with a 9% job gain to 290 OC workers. The company is part of Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
The list includes two new entries. No. 20 Intralase Corp. of Irvine, a maker of eye surgery products, saw a 15% rise in workers to 115 people. No. 24 Ossur North America, a maker of prosthetic limbs and part of Iceland’s Ossur HF, made the list with 94 local workers, down just one worker from last year.
Along with Tyco, GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, a GE Corp. unit that makes wireless communications gear for hospitals and doctors, fell off this year’s list. GE ranked No. 24 last year and didn’t make this year’s cut off with a 22% drop in local workers to 70 people.
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