Teleflex (NYSE:TFX) reportedly plans to expand its catheter production operations in the Czech Republic, where it already has some 700 employees.
Teleflex could invest $1 million or more on an expansion in Hradec Králové, according to a Czech republic business development agency cited in a report by European Plastics News. Teleflex has a smaller factory in the Czech Republic city of Zdar.
In April 2014, Teleflex began retooling its manufacturing operations in part to move some jobs to lower-cost area, saying it expects to spend up to $53 million on the move including as much as $15 million for severance benefits and up to $5 million to exit facilities. That program came on the heels of a restructuring of its European operations revealed last February.
Earlier this year, Teleflex won FDA 501(k) clearance to market the Arrow NextStep catheter for use in chronic hemodialysis, a process to remove waste from the blood during renal failure.
"Expanding our presence in the dialysis market continues to be a goal for Teleflex," said CEO Benson Smith in a July conference call. "This product features a symmetrical tip design that allows for ease of placement and sustained high flows with minimal recirculation. It’s only catheter in the market with an innovative tip designed to produce a three-dimensional transition of blood entering and leaving the catheter."
Teleflex manufactures catheters under the Arrow International brand. The Limerick, Pa.-based company makes a broad range of medical products, earning $47.3 million in the 2nd quarter as revenue rose 11% from a year earlier, to $468 million.
