Flextronics expands medical disposables business
Flextronics, a leading electronics manufacturing services business, is growing its medical disposables business with the acquisition of medical device producer Slomedical and the expansion of its plant in Mexico.
The company aims to complete the purchase of the Slovakian supplier of products ranging from medical tubing sets to complex devices for ‘minimally invasive surgery’ before the end of the year. "Upon completion of the deal, we look forward to expanding Slomedical's well established low-cost operations and investing in additional manufacturing capabilities, quality systems and design services,” said Dan Croteau, president of Flextronics Medical.
Slomedical was founded in 2003 and now has a factory of 7,500m² with 800m² of class 100,000 cleanrooms divided into three sections to allow dedicated manufacture and assembly for individual clients. The company works for multinational medical device companies, covering the gamut from sub assembly to OEM manufacturing. The factory in Vrable is around 100km east of Bratislava and employs 200 people. The company has four blister machines and equipment for ultrasound welding and cleaning, plus equipment for the processing of plastic materials and a number of testing devices.
“We have grown to a point that in order to expand and support the growing needs of our customers, we must partner with a larger organisation such as Flextronics,” said Frank Sodha, Slomedical’s managing director.
Singapore-based Flextronics has also recently expanded its disposable medical device manufacturing plant in Tijuana, Mexico to include “key vertical integration capabilities” of plastic-injection moulding and extrusion, along with cleanroom assembly operations. The company says this will enable it to achieve lower costs and faster time-to-market.
Flextronics operates in 30 countries on four continents. www.flextronics.com