Stryker closing South Carolina surgical equipment manufacturing facility

Berchtold LED F Generation surgical light--Courtesy of Stryker

Stryker ($SYK) is closing a North Charleston, SC, facility that makes operating room equipment by the end of the year.

The plant was added via the acquisition of Germany's Berchtold for $172 million in 2014. Berchtold had annual sales of $125 million, and made surgical cameras, booms (ceiling-mounted systems for storage and delivery of medical equipment), surgical lighting and information technology, all for the operating room.

According to local newspaper The Post and Courier, about 115 employees worked at the plant, at least of 2012. Its output included surgical lighting. The papers reports that the operations are being transferred to the Dallas area, home of the company's Stryker Communications unit, of which Berchtold's devices are a big part.

Stryker declined to say whether the South Carolina employees will be laid off or transferred to the new location, saying only that the plant's operations will be transitioning to its "existing manufacturing network," and that "we are constantly evaluating our business to ensure that our resources are aligned to drive growth, meet the needs of our customers and increase operating efficiencies in a complex global environment," according to The Post and Courier.

Out of $2.4 billion in revenues from Q2 2015, Stryker's surgical instruments contributed $354 million in revenue, an increase of 8.5% year over year at constant currencies.

The closure and relocation of Stryker's North Charleston facility comes on the heels of Boston Scientific's ($BSX) decision to move its single-use device operations in Fremont and San Jose, CA, to Costa Rica. Abbott also recently disclosed cutbacks in two of its Californian facilities that are associated with products of its stents.

- here's more in The Post and Courier