Abbott - Job Loses

sgthighway

Its on the news at 3pm.
Many/Any jobs lost in Abbott?
I'm not near a Radio:(

PopeBuckfastXVI

I work in the area and was just popping out to the shop there, looked to be a hundred or more people milling around outside.

sgthighway

Just heard - 500 jobs gone in Mervue!!!!!!!!!

Amazotheamazing

Just heard the entire plant is closing, disaster, really bad news. Heard this from a guy working there but don't know if it's gospel yet.

What happened to the Johnson and Johnson plant opening in Athenry?

sgthighway

J&J, Abbot, Medtronic and Boston Scientific are all in Direct Competition of each other and its a Cut Throat Business. Its no secret but Boston along with the help of Abbott purchased Guidant a while back for billions. They reckon it was the worst Business Deal ever for anyone. They need to save money badly. The Manuafacturing Slowdown in the US doesn't help either. Boston let 72 go 2 weeks ago. More in the new year, but 90% will be voluntary.
My heart goes out to those 500 people and their families.

Amazotheamazing

But when are J&J opening? Should offset a lot of the job losses.

DonJose

This has just been confirmed,

"Abbott Ireland has confirmed that its operation in Mervue Business Park in Galway is to close with the loss of 500 jobs."
http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/1204/abbott.html

leex

Is that the correct link? Doesn't say it is confirmed there.

W

galah

Really nice Christmas present for all the employees.

galah

leex wrote: »

Is that the correct link? Doesn't say it is confirmed there.

W

yep, it does. First line...

Abbott Ireland has confirmed that its operation in Mervue Business Park in Galway is to close with the loss of 500 jobs.

leex

My mistake - damn cached proxy server page.

Not nice news.

DonJose

Thats the last thing anybody wants to hear right before Christmas, my heart goes out to them.

big b

Pretty bad news for Galway.

Extremely rough on all the families who rely on Abbott for their living. Hope they get the festive season and a good pay-off out of it, at least.

leex

Very bad news with the current downturn in the economy.

biko

Seems quite a few big Galway operations, Boston, Abbott, APC are downsizing.
Terrible for the families.

[rumour]Probably will relocate to a country where the workforce is cheaper [/rumour]

bugle

im currently working in the medical device industry myself and i have to admit im startin to get a small bit paranoid about my future prospects as an engineer in ireland.slowly but surely theres theres been quite a lot of job losses hasnt there

Fey!

Commiserations to all of those affected by this, both directly and indirectly.

Hopefully someone else will come in to take an equivalent number of, or more, people on the way Boston Scientific and APC, along with Compaq, did when Digital closed 13/14 years ago.

sgthighway

I believe its open until September but the reality is its probably going to scale down asap. The people who finished as part of the job losses in Boston a few weeks ago have a head start for similar roles that were in Abbott. Intel first, then Boston, then Abbott............I predict Medtronic to follow

I know it doesn't suit everyone but an 8 week redundancy package is good and alot of people will walk away with a lump sum.

Steyr

Terrible news.

biko

I get the feeling this all is because the tax breaks for these companies are up?

galwayrush

Sad news, but i'm afraid there's a lot more to come.
Oversupply on a Global scale of a product is to blame here, but there are thousands of jobs at risk to cheaper labour markets in Eastern Europe.

justfortherecor

I hate to say it but i also think there may be more to come.
Boston Scientific are especially worrying. As a poster mentioned earlier, their acquisition of Guidant has been an unmitigated disaster. The share price has tumbled to worrying lows and the difference between the premium paid to acquire the new company and the new valuation of the overall group is massive.
Management seems to be desperately looking for cost-cutting measures, further cuts in Galway might be possible, but hopefully not.

Again, terrible news to hear and a horrible time of year for it to happen.

sgthighway

I don't think its a case of over supply for stents. Most of these companies wouldn't be filling warehouse with their product because it has a shelve life like any medicine. Its a case of them trying to keep ahead of each other buy buying companies that pose a threat or have a technology they want. They will even infringe each others copyrights and patents to keep ahead. They are always in court with each other.
Abbott have six plants in Ireland apart from Galway
Boston have five
Medtronic have one
J&J have six - closed another in Athlone recently

I said already Medtronic will probably be the next to announce job cuts. Boston will let go more. Abbott could make more cuts too. Boston and Abbott share a Facility in Clonmel. Clonmel have had a bad run; Atari and Digital.

Is there an official statement anywhere that J&J were going tom come here?
There are plans for an Industrial/Manuafacturing Estate in Athenry and one is been worked on in Oranmore. Who is going to fill them?

APC have left a big empty building in Ballybrit too.

DonJose

biko wrote: »

I get the feeling this all is because the tax breaks for these companies are up?

Don't know about that but the strong Euro definatly plays a part. When the Euro was introduced it was rough $.80 to €1, now its $1.48 to €1, that plays a big part considering its an Amercian company whose books are in $$$.

tonyhiggins

It's a strange one from my point of view... Abbott just got the go ahead from the FDA's approval board to launch their latest drug coated stent in America, the full go-ahead is probably only a few months away. It seems like it's going to be the best on the market and will clean up.

I had heard that due to the Guidant purchase that Boston reached a point where it had more debt that it was worth, but I thought Abbott had done quite well out of it, I thought they bought the half of the business that's still doing well. I'm just about to get out of this business, perhaps my timing is right/wrong...

leninbenjamin

tonyhiggins wrote: »

It's a strange one from my point of view... Abbott just got the go ahead from the FDA's approval board to launch their latest drug coated stent in America, the full go-ahead is probably only a few months away. It seems like it's going to be the best on the market and will clean up.

I had heard that due to the Guidant purchase that Boston reached a point where it had more debt that it was worth, but I thought Abbott had done quite well out of it, I thought they bought the half of the business that's still doing well. I'm just about to get out of this business, perhaps my timing is right/wrong...

i think it's as much the paranoia effect of the current global slowdown i think. a lot of people out there are predicting America is going to slip into full blown recession quite soon, the fall in the dollar being the first indicator of this (which would have huge implications for their market). Whether or not they have good reason to is somewhat diluted anyway, all this pessimism tends to feed itself anyway.

if people keep their wits about them you can ride it out to some extent, but it seems possibly like Abbot got cold feet about the future market potential out of all of this and backed off the investment. that or the current credit crunch is making it difficult to raise the funds for such investment perhaps? who knows... it's just going to be a worrying few years for some it seems.

DonJose

tonyhiggins wrote: »

It's a strange one from my point of view... Abbott just got the go ahead from the FDA's approval board to launch their latest drug coated stent in America, the full go-ahead is probably only a few months away. It seems like it's going to be the best on the market and will clean up.

I had heard that due to the Guidant purchase that Boston reached a point where it had more debt that it was worth, but I thought Abbott had done quite well out of it, I thought they bought the half of the business that's still doing well. I'm just about to get out of this business, perhaps my timing is right/wrong...

Looking at a 5 year chart of Boston Vs Abbott you would think it would be Boston who would be annoucing plant closures.

SimpleSam06

Not to worry, everyone will find jobs in the many industries which have opened in the new entrepreneurial spirit of the Celtic Tiger, fostered and supported by the wise investment of the record tax takes of the last six years by the government.

Whats that you say, no home grown businesses? In fact income taxes are set to go up to pay for all the public servants hired when the going was good (and their non contributory pensions)? There have been no infrastructure improvements to speak of? And the annual income of our glorious leader is now higher than that of the US president? And the whole Celtic Tiger was just us buying and selling houses to each other?

So we have nothing to keep foreign businesses here in the face of very competitive wages from new EU members (and it won't be long before they copy our corporate tax rate either) and no domestic industries?

Why, that smells like trouble to me.

My sincere condolences to those who have lost their jobs, and to their families at this time of year. A more painful blow is hard to imagine. The damage might have been lessened if we weren't governed by a shower of incompetents. But don't forget, Slow the Flow (Ireland has an average of 1m of precipitation per annum, or 6.148 cubic kilometers of water over Galway County alone, or roughly 76 million litres per person per year)...