Medtronic Begins Process of Closing Anaheim Plant

Medtronic Inc. said Tuesday it plans to close its Anaheim plant within two years, eliminating most of the 560 jobs to avoid duplicating work at another site the company has acquired.

Employees learned Monday of the closure, the same day Medtronic completed its acquisition of the Minnesota-based Avecor Cardiovascular Inc.

The Anaheim and Minnesota facilities make devices that supply oxygen to blood that is routed outside the body during heart surgery. Medtronic will phase out the Anaheim plant and continue making blood oxygenation systems at Avecor’s larger, more modern plant in Brooklyn Park, Minn., spokesman Dick Reid said.

Only about 50 employees in Anaheim will be offered jobs elsewhere, the company said.

Medtronic officials will meet with employees throughout the week to discuss severance packages, said Jon Berry, human resources director.

“We’re really doing this way in advance,” he said. “And we’re trying to give the workers as much notice to plan for their lives as we can.”

Reid said he doubts that the news of the Anaheim plant’s closure came as a surprise to workers because they were aware that the company had purchased the new plant. Medtronic has operated at the Anaheim site since 1986.

“They’ve all been prepared for this,” he said. “It’s never a pleasant situation for employees. . . . But I think they all understand the pressures on the business and the need to streamline it.”

Officials at the local plant declined to comment.

Medtronic also has a plant in Santa Ana. There will be no changes at that facility, which makes heart valves, Reid said.

Minneapolis-based Medtronic once made only pacemakers, but has diversified in response to consolidation in the health care industry. Makers of medical devices can benefit from offering a wider array of products to health care providers, Reid said.

Medtronic has purchased four companies in the last eight months, and now has four divisions that manufacture a variety of devices, he said.

It is unclear what will happen to the 100,000-square-foot Anaheim plant, at 4633 E. La Palma Ave. Medtronic bought the building and the primary product made there in 1986 from Johnson & Johnson.

Anaheim officials said they were surprised by the announcement that one of the city’s larger employers will be closing its operations.

“We hate to lose an employer of that quality,” said Richard Bruckner, director of the Redevelopment Agency.He noted, however, that the real estate market is strong in that area.

“They’re in an area of Anaheim that has a very low vacancy rate, is attracting high-tech companies and has been relatively prosperous,” Brucker said. “So I think chances are relatively good that the building won’t sit vacant for long.”

Medtronic is also closing its plant in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie. All 175 workers there will be relocated to the Brooklyn Park site because they make different products than Avecor, Reid said.

Previously, Medtronic moved to consolidate its Medtronic Vascular division, which makes devices used in angioplasty. The company said in January that it would close five facilities, eliminating about 1,600 jobs, many of them in California.

The division’s San Diego plant, which has about 500 employees, will be closed over the next year. The operations will be combined with those of Arterial Vascular Engineering, another Medtronic acquisition, in Santa Rosa. Up to 300 San Diego workers will be offered jobs in Santa Rosa, Reid said.

Medtronic stock fell $2.19 a share Tuesday to $71.75 in New York Stock Exchange trading.