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HOME arrow Manufacturing arrow Unipath to close in Bedford with loss of over 430 jobs arrow Registration
Unipath to close in Bedford with loss of over 430 jobs
Manufacturing
Written by Lautaro Vargas   
Friday, 29 February 2008
Unipath's Clearblue home pregnancy test At least 433 workers are expected to be made redundant in Bedford following the announcement by Inverness Medical Innovations that it intends to relocate the entire functions of its UK subsidiary, Unipath Ltd, to China.

Inverness (IMI), which already has other low-cost manufacturing operations in China, says Unipath, famous for its home pregnancy test devices, could be completely shut down by the end of 2009.

Kevin Stearn, managing director at Unipath, said the company would be consulting with representatives of all its employees and other interested parties over the next three months.

Unipath was established by Unilever in 1984 and launched its Clearblue home pregnancy test in 1985. It was sold to IMI in 2001 for around £103 million and has had its head office in Bedford since 1996.

Massachusetts-based IMI added that a further 122 staff employed on the site under its recent diagnostics JV with Proctor & Gamble, Swiss Precision Diagnostics Development Co Ltd (SPD), will keep their jobs though they may have to move if following the consultation, IMI decides to close the facility altogether.

Inverness has focused on moving its manufacturing to China to “increase quality and decrease costs” since 2004 when it began manufacturing a small amount of product through a third party, subsequently entering into a joint venture with this Chinese manufacturer and acquiring a controlling ownership of the manufacturing facility.

In 2006 it increased its presence through the acquisition of ABON, the owner of a new, 300,000 sq ft, state-of-the art facility located in Hangzhou. It has since continued to shift production from higher-cost Inverness facilities and 3rdparty suppliers to ABON. The facility has significant available capacity and more is planned.

The company is in a highly acquisitive mode and has made several acquisitions in the last four months, including the £600 million purchase of Matria Healthcare in January this year. It also raised around £400m in a public offering in November 2007.

Unipath manufactured over 50 million women’s health diagnostic tests in the second half of 2007, according to Inverness. Reports say the firm expects a charge of approximately $37m for costs associated with the move. IMI reported a 2007 net loss of $241.5m on revenue of $839.5m.
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