Clinical Lab That Employs 516 Will Close : Newbury Park: City officials say Damon facility’s scheduled closure by September will have little effect on the local economy.
A Newbury Park clinical laboratory that employs 516 people will be closing its doors by September in a company consolidation that Thousand Oaks officials say should have only a limited effect on the local economy.
Nathan Headley, president and chief executive of Physicians Clinical Laboratory Inc., announced this week the slated closure of the Damon Corp. facility as part of his company’s recent $51-million acquisition of Damon.
Officials said the closure would have little effect on the local economy because it would be offset by incoming business and planned expansions.
The Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday approved biotechnology giant Amgen’s proposal to make room for 6,300 new workers over the next 25 years by building additional offices, warehouses, manufacturing plants and research labs.
“I’m certainly glad that the city in their wisdom passed the approval of the Amgen Specific Plan so that they can make up the shortfall that we may feel from this closure,” said Steve Rubenstein, president of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re extremely lucky and blessed in our community in that we’re a highly desirable place to live and there have been a number of companies looking to our area after the earthquake for their relocation purposes.”
Headley said his company plans to reassign workers from the Newbury Park facility and a PCL lab in Glendale to a newly built laboratory near Burbank Airport. He said, however, that some of the positions in Newbury Park and Glendale will be lost in the transition.
“There will be some downsizing,” he said. “It’s impossible for me to tell you how much at this point. Obviously when you put two large facilities together there will be some downsizing.”
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About 225 of the Damon workers live in the Thousand Oaks/Newbury Park area, company officials said, with the rest coming from both Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
In mapping its future strategy, Headley said PCL had two reasons for deciding to close two of its facilities and build a new one.
Headley said combining the two facilities would make the business more efficient and centrally located.
“The second reason is that Newbury Park is substantially removed from the greater Los Angeles area, putting a lot of strain on courier routes. So, logistically, it doesn’t make sense to maintain an area that far away.”
PCL conducts 16,000 clinical tests daily statewide, and after the merger takes effect it will be conducting 25,000 tests daily, Headley said.
“We are a clinical laboratory operation,” Headley said. “We perform laboratory tests in support of doctors’ offices, doctor groups, clinics and hospitals in quite large volume.”
Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo said he was disappointed to hear of Damon’s planned exodus.
“How depressing,” he said. “We enjoy people moving in and we don’t enjoy businesses leaving. I think that if the city can be involved in helping in some way to keep them here, that’s one thing. But if it’s a business decision to consolidate, I feel kind of helpless.”
