Business

Wednesday November 11, 2009

Symmetry to expand Penang plant


By DAVID TAN

davidtan@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: New York Stock Exchange-listed Symmetry Medical Inc plans to spend more than RM30mil on its Penang facility over the next two to three years.

Group president and chief executive officer Brian Moore said the expansion exercise would involve upgrading its equipment and acquiring design and development expertise.

“We are particularly interested in engaging engineers with experience in the medical devices sector.

“We want to increase our workforce in Penang to about 200 from 70 in the next 12 months,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Symmetry Medical, the world’s largest orthopaedic product outsourcing firm, has so far invested RM20mil in the Penang operations that it started two years ago.

Symmetry Medical president and chief executive officer Brian Moore (left) and Symmetry Medical Asia Pacific senior vice-president (corporate development) for Asian operations Christopher Huntington (Right) at the press briefing

The proposed expansion is in tandem with the move to increase the contribution of the Penang facility, which currently stands at 5%, to 20% of group revenue in the next five years.

Last year, Symmetry Medical registered a US$460mil revenue.

Moore said the group was also mulling investing in the design and development for medical devices for the endoscopy industry.

“Our present medical devices for the orthopaedic industry generates about 70% of group revenue, the endoscopy segment about 20% and aerospace devices the remainder,” he said.

In Bayan Lepas, Symmetry Medical occupies a 50,000-sq ft facility, designing and manufacturing medical implants, instruments, and sterilisation cases for markets in Asia, Europe and the United States.

The Penang facility outsources some 20% of its work to local small and medium-scale vendors.

”We are looking to outsource up to about 40% of the work done in Penang,” Moore said.

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