New Covidien plc Chief Plans to Grow Headcount Outside US

Covidien Plc. (NYSE:COV) will likely beef up its overseas workforce, CEO Joe Almeida told attendees at a Boston meeting of medical device executives today. “Slightly less than half of our revenues come from outside the U.S., so we need more people in places like the UK and Singapore,” Almeida said. Almeida insisted that the jobs overseas were not taking away from jobs domestically, saying “It’s not about fewer workers here, it’s about more workers overseas.” The news comes on the heels of the Mansfield, Mass.-based health product maker’s Q3 earnings report, where the company announced a 47 percent boost in profits as well as unspecified layoffs tied to ongoing efforts at restructuring. Covidien, which ranked 9th on the MassDevice Big 100 list of the world’s largest medical device companies, estimated that it would save between $175 million and $225 million per year by 2014.