Layoffs ahead as Urologix restructures

January 9, 2014 By Brad Perriello Leave a Comment

Urologix (OCT:ULGX) said it will lay off an unspecified number of workers as it looks to pare more than $1.5 million from its annual budget.

Minneapolis-based Urologix, which makes the Cooled ThermoTherapy and Prostiva RF devices to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, also issued its preliminary revenue numbers for its fiscal 2nd quarter. Sales are expected to be roughly $3.8 million for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, which would be a 12.7% decline compared with the same period in 2012.

Urologix also withdrew its outlook for the rest of fiscal 2014. The medical device company had said it expected to post sales of of $15 million to $17 million for the fiscal year.

The layoffs and restructuring are designed to "refocus the allocation of resources and improve company profitability," according to a press release. Urologix said it plans to reorganize its operating groups and deploy "a more focused sales team structure."

"The deployment is designed to focus our field sales and mobile organization on the company’s strongest urology partners. These accounts, together, represent approximately 90% of U.S. company revenue and have demonstrated improving trends in recent years. Importantly, we have also dedicated resources in our inside sales and customer service roles to provide continuing support to all current customers by leveraging the combined resources of this sales-support group," according to the release.

"This new organizational structure marks an important step towards repositioning Urologix for future growth and sustainability," CEO Greg Fluet said in prepared remarks. "In addition to refocusing our resources on our strongest urology partners, we believe these measures will lead to a more cost effective sales and operating infrastructure. Importantly, by leveraging our well-established, multi-tiered, distribution model, we expect to maintain our market-leading service levels throughout our existing account base of urologist practices. We expect this program to make the company stronger and to drive improving profitability and shareholder value going forward."

Urologix is slated to report its full fiscal 2nd-quarter results Feb. 4.

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