FEI Co. to close Bay State plant
Boston Business Journal
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Electron-microscope maker FEI Co. is abandoning its Peabody, Mass.,
facility as part of a restructuring plan to improve efficiency.
The Hillsboro, Ore., company makes electron microscopes and industrial
inspection systems. It acquired the plant in its 1999 acquisition of
competitor Micrion, valued at more than $50 million. Micrion’s gear
generated ion beams to examine and alter semiconductors during the
fabrication process.
At the time of the acquisition, Micrion employed 200 people. FEI expects
closing the plant will cost it $15 million over two quarters for
severance and relocation costs.
“To the degree that we can, we want to reassign and realign these people
to where we think our growth needs to be served, and that is why our
charges are as high as they are,” said Vahe Sarkissian, chief executive
of FEI. “We want to relocate as many people as we can into the right
locations and the right jobs, and to the degree that we can we will do
so. Being realistic we expect some fallout.”
He added the company has yet to quantify how many jobs will be relocated.
The 69,000 square-foot plant in Peabody’s Centennial Park is one of five
manufacturing locations FEI has worldwide. The company is also closing a
small plant in Munich, Germany.
In a conference call with analysts, FEI said it laid off 30 employees in
the second quarter, but did not specify which facilities were affected.
At the start of the year, the company reported having 1,690 employees
worldwide.
FEI shares (NASDAQ: FEIC) expects sales between $109 million and $111
million, down at least $5 million from earlier estimates.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress