Medical device components maker Lake Region Medical is winding down its manufacturing operations in Arvada, a move that was put into motion in 2014.
Lake Region Medical plans to shutter its facility at 5000 Independence St. in Arvada by Sept. 30, affecting 164 full-time employees, said Christopher Knospe, a spokesman for , which acquired Lake Region Medical for $1.73 billion last year.
The layoffs will occur in waves, with affected workers losing their jobs starting as early as Thursday, and will continue through the coming months, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filings made late last week with the state Department of Labor and Employment.
The closure of the 44,000-square-foot Arvada plant has been on the docket .
Medical device maker Accellent Inc. had acquired Lake Region just a few months earlier and opted to axe the facility that housed manufacturing operations of specialty wire components for medical devices such as vascular access equipment used for cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment.
“Accellent has determined that the manufacturing process and capabilities overlap that now exist as a result of the acquisition of Lake Region Medical and the ongoing cost and price pressures we are experiencing, have made it difficult for Accellent to continue to manufacture products at its Arvada facility,” Bernard L. Maloney III, Accellent’s vice president of human resources, wrote in a Sept. 9, 2014, WARN letter.
Accellent projected then that 190 regular employees and 50 temporary workers would be affected and that the site would close by the middle of 2016.
Those closure plans continued to move forward after Lake Region landed in the hands of Greatbatch.
“There are no plans for continued manufacturing in Colorado,” Knospe wrote in an e-mail to The Denver Post.
Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or @aliciawallace
