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ACMI to close Racine plant

... O'Brien said Bristol's ownership ended with the "negative hype" about silicone breast implants. In Houston, in 1992 a jury awarded ...

http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2006/01/24/local/business/iq_3870162.txt

ACMI to close Racine plantBy Michael Burke

RACINE - The owner of ACMI, formerly Surgitek, dropped a bomb on workers Monday morning with the announcement that the plant will close later this year.

The move will eliminate 157 permanent jobs; ACMI also employed about 15 temporary workers as of Monday.

ACMI, which was known several owners back as Surgitek, makes urological and gynecological stents and disposable instruments for minimally invasive surgeries.

The purchase last August of ACMI by the British company Gyrus led to the closing, said Craig Swandal, senior vice president of operations for Gyrus ACMI.

He called it a case of an ACMI manufacturing plant being integrated into a Gyrus plant.

"Racine is a very well-run plant," Swandal said. Unfortunately, Gyrus had one manufacturing plant too many with one in Reading, England, and six in the United States.

"That is really the primary reason," Swandal said. "We have too many plants. They're all single-shift, and not at full capacity."

And the Racine products were most compatible with what is done in the larger Gyrus ACMI plant in the Minneapolis area. That made it the most cost-effective to blend into another manufacturing plant.

On the receiving end, the Minneapolis area plant is Gyrus ACMI's largest, so it could take in the most production.

"The acquisition put it right in front of us that, if we're going to survive, we're going to have to do some things."

Some of the other Gyrus ACMI plants make niche products, he said. "The technical expertise is a little harder to move."

Swandal said the company had given no hints to local workers before Monday's announcement, so the reaction was predictable.

"I've had to go through this before, and I have actually been on the receiving end as well," he said.

"There were a lot of (gasps)," Swandal said, quickly drawing in his breath to indicate the reactions. "And a lot of tears, immediately."

ACMI does light assembly, and about 80 percent of the ACMI work force are women, Swandal said. He estimated that about 60 percent of the jobs there are manufacturing positions and the rest office jobs. All the permanent jobs carried full benefits packages.

Some employees will be given transfer offers, he said. "No. 1, we wanted to give them as much notice as possible, so as a result there's not a lot of solidification yet" of what those transfer opportunities might be.

"No one will be asked to leave till May at the earliest, and the majority will be toward the fourth quarter."

The company's intention is to have the plant emptied by Dec. 31, Swandal added.

Swandal said Gyrus ACMI intends to treat the Racine work force as well as possible under the circumstances.

"As we told employees, it was a painful decision and well-thought out. In the end, we will do everything we can for the employees here."

For example, he said, all permanent employees will receive healthy severance packages. ACMI will set up a job-search center at the plant so people can get help with resume writing and start their searches.

"Our human resources department here is really good, and we'll hold them on to the very end."

Moreover, lean-manufacturing training will continue, Swandal said, "So they can get that under their belt and on their resumes."

ACMI underwent a series of ownership changes before the critical acquisition by Gyrus. "I worked at the facility from 1987 to 2000, having survived five owners - Bristol Myers Squibb, Cabot Medical, Circon ACMI, Maxxim Medical and Fox Paine," said Robert O'Brien.

"The company was a great place to work - we had a great employee team that worked hard and played even harder."

O'Brien said Bristol's ownership ended with the "negative hype" about silicone breast implants. In Houston, in 1992 a jury awarded a woman $25 million in damages for a silicon breast implant that ruptured, forcing her to have a partial mastectomy and causing auto-immune disease.

O'Brien said the breast implant disaster slashed employment from about 650 total employees, including 450 in Racine. After the dust had settled and Cabot Medical bought the company, the local work force landed at 86.