Date: Dec 04, 2013 Author: Don Sieffert Source: bizjournals (
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Don Seiffert
Harvard Bioscience announced today plans to lay off about 50 employees - 13 percent of its global workforce - in an attempt to save money. CEO Jeffrey Duchemin said that includes about 10 positions eliminated at its Holliston headquarters.
In a statement, the company said the cuts are aimed at "eliminating certain operational redundancies across several sites, creating a leaner, more nimble organization." Duchemin explained that the cuts were aimed at overlapping departments among the dozen or so smaller surgical equipment makers the company now owns through acquisitions over the years. For instance, he said, the company had five different customer service departments in each of its U.S. subsidiaries.
Duchemin the cuts would save about $3 million in personnel costs, $1 million of which it plans to reinvest in expanding the company. He said that expansion would include creating sales offices in emerging markets, particularly in China, as well as investing in new product development.
As of August, the company had between 375 and 400 employees, about 120 of which were at the company's Holliston headquarters. Some of those were lost when the company spun out Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology as a separate publicly-traded company in November.
Duchemin, who took over as CEO of the company in August, said at the time that he planned to maintain the company strategy to "build the base business, continue looking at acquisitions, and expand geographically." He said those goals remain in place, and the recent appointment of Yong Sun into the recently-created role of vice president of strategic marketing will help the company identify potential acquisitions.
The company, founded in 1901, has 20 wholly-owned subsidiaries, and has the rights to trade names including Hoefer, GeneMachines, Biochrom, Warner, BTX, and Denville Scientific.
The company's stock has been on the rise for most of the last year, and as of the opening of markets today, was trading at $4.38 a share, up 55 percent from a year ago.
