MILAN, Italy, May 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sorin Group, the largest European cardiovascular medical devices player and world leader in medical technologies for cardiac surgery, announced today the industrial integration plan for its Cardiopulmonary business, part of its Cardiac Surgery Business Unit.
The goal is to further strengthen the Group's market leadership position and to deliver superior customer focus, continuous innovation and a competitive cost structure by improving the manufacturing flexibility, time-to-market and costs efficiency for its cardiopulmonary (CPB), heart-lung machine (HLM), autologous blood transfusion (ATS) and blood management (BM) product lines.
The plan, as anticipated on November 12th, 2004 and on March 1st, 2005 at the Strategic Plan 2005-2009 analysts presentation, completes the overall industrial restructuring and cost reduction program aimed at fully realizing all the Group's untapped value.
Integration plan key principles
Until now, Sorin Group has been operating in the Cardiopulmonary field with three companies - Cobe Cardiovascular, Dideco and Stockert - with excellent results. In the future, full global integration will be pursued and reached with the three units fully acting as one, with a shared vision, a global business strategy, a global organization, global processes in innovation, marketing, regulatory, manufacturing and supply chain, and under a common Sorin Group brand.
The new fully integrated unit will work out of three sites - Denver, Mirandola and Munich - with each site acting as a center of excellence focused on specific missions and competencies.
Integration plan key elements
A few fundamental strategic business decisions and objectives triggered the definition and launch of the integration plan:
- Consolidation of the Oxygenator product lines into a single best-in-class platform for worldwide markets.
- Pursuit of breakthrough innovation by developing an integrated system for patient-oriented extracorporeal circulation.
- Leverage of worldwide recognized excellence in HLM to further strengthen the competitive position in ATS.
The focus of operations in Denver, Mirandola and Munich is going to be redefined, with the establishment of centers of excellence, the elimination of duplicated manufacturing activities and concentration of manufacturing at the most cost effective locations. In particular:
- Denver operations will focus on: ATS disposable sets assembly, as well as PTS (perfusion tubing systems) design and assembly, for North American customers; distribution of Sorin Group products in North America. In addition, Denver will continue to grow as the Headquarters of Sorin Group's North America Region with Group Sales, Field Marketing and Shared Services.
- Mirandola will host the worldwide production of Oxygenators and ATS bowls, as well as: ATS disposable sets assembly, and PTS (perfusion tubing systems) design and assembly, for the International Region (Europe and RoW) customers; distribution of CPB/ATS disposables for the International Region.
- Munich will host the worldwide manufacturing of all Cardiac Surgery equipment. In addition, it will serve as worldwide distribution center and technical service center for such equipment.
The integration plan will also carry the additional benefit of allowing the outsourcing of low value added activities.
The implementation of the plan and the transfer of the production processes, which will start immediately, will be carried out with the fundamental goal of preserving the highest quality and reliability standards, and ensuring full compliance with regulatory approvals received from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Union, while providing for an effective transition to the single Oxygenator platform.
"The expected yearly cost savings from the plan will be 10 million euros in 2009, and will start to significantly impact our bottom line already in 2007," said Franco Vallana, President of the Sorin Group's Cardiac Surgery Business Unit.
"Implementation of this plan represents a further step in our relentless pursuit of manufacturing excellence and operating efficiency, and will further strengthen our leadership position in the Cardiopulmonary business," added Drago Cerchiari, Sorin Group's Chief Executive Officer.
The Sorin Group (Reuters code: SORN.MI), a world leader in the development of medical technologies for cardiac surgery, offers innovative therapies for cardiac rhythm management, interventional cardiology and the treatment of chronic kidney diseases. The companies of the Sorin Group are: Bellco, CarboMedics, COBE Cardiovascular, Dideco, ELA Medical, Mitroflow, Soludia, Sorin Biomedica and Stockert. The Sorin Group has about 4,800 employees working at facilities in more than 80 countries throughout the world to serve over 5,000 public and private treatment centers.
For more information please visit: http://www.sorin.com/
Sorin S.p.ACONTACT: Contact details: Marilena Giavara, Director, CorporateCommunications & Investor Relations, Tel. +39-02-6332201 ,e-mail: marilena.giavara@sorin.com; Laura Villa, InvestorRelations Manager, Tel. +39-02-6332316, e-mail:laura.villa@sorin.com