WAUKESHA, Wis. — General Electric’s health care unit, the world’s biggest maker of medical-imaging machines, said Monday it will move the headquarters for its more than 100-year-old X-ray business to China to tap emerging market growth.
“A handful” of top managers will move to Beijing and there won’t be any job cuts, said Anne LeGrand, vice president and general manager of X-ray for GE Healthcare. The headquarters will move amid a broader parent-company plan to invest about $2 billion across China, including opening six “customer innovation” and development centers.
The move follows the introduction earlier this year of GE Healthcare’s “Spring Wind” initiative to develop and distribute medical products and services in China, GE said in a statement. More than 20 percent of the X-ray unit’s new products will be developed in China, LeGrand said.
“We anticipate it’s going to be a growing modality,” LeGrand said, adding that her division should have “double-digit” growth rates as the country converts from film and analog to digital X-ray technology.
“When you look at a market like China, it’s primarily analog. So we feel this will also bring digital technology at an appropriate price point,” she said.
GE Healthcare got about $1.1 billion of its $16.9 billion in sales from China last year.
