Hill-Rom formally opens expanded facility at Welch Allyn campus in Skaneateles Falls

SKANEATELES FALLS, N.Y. — Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HRC) has formally dedicated a $12.7 million expansion project that adds about 100,000 square feet to its Welch Allyn campus in Skaneateles Falls.

It broke ground on the project in May 2017.

“So, this here is all warehouse and shipping, delivery, logistics, but it … frees a lot of space up so we could add R&D, marketing, and other jobs as well,” Alton Shader, president of Welch Allyn, said in speaking with reporters at Friday’s dedication ceremony.

It will also allow for “centralization” of local warehousing and distribution operations.

Welliver, a construction firm headquartered in Montour Falls in Schuyler County, was the contractor on the project, Valerie Finarty, VP of operations of front-line care at Hill-Rom, told BJNN after the event.

The company announced in September 2016 its commitment to bring more than 100 new jobs to Skaneateles Falls, while retaining nearly 900 existing positions.

To date, the company has already created 60 new jobs and is “on track” to meet job creation goals, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news release.

“We’re in the midst of doing that,” Shader told reporters. “We’ve got a specific plan to have that done here in 2018.

Hill-Rom’s new facility will help accommodate the new positions, a large portion of which will be research and development and engineering roles, the company said in a separate news release issued Friday. The expansion will also accommodate the growth of Hill-Rom’s front-line care business, “of which Welch Allyn is the largest component,” Hill-Rom added.

Empire State Development (ESD), New York’s economic-development agency, provided Hill-Rom an incentive package of up to $12.3 million, Cuomo’s office said. It included $6.3 million in performance-based Excelsior tax credits and a $6 million CNY Rising Upstate Revitalization Initiative grant. Both the tax credits and the grant are “tied directly to job creation and investment commitments.” The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency also approved local incentives for the project.

Chicago, Illinois–based Hill-Rom, a medical-technology company, in 2015 acquired Welch Allyn, a medical-device maker, for about $2.05 billion in cash and stock.

CEO change, Q2 results

Hill-Rom on April 27 announced that John Groetelaars has been appointed president and CEO of the company, effective Monday. He succeeds John Greisch, who previously announced his intention to retire. Groetelaars will also join Hill-Rom’s board of directors.

Hill-Rom on April 27 also reported “strong” fiscal second-quarter financial results, “driven in part by the success” of Welch Allyn products such as the RetinaVue imager and Connex spot monitor, the company said in its news release.

The company reported net income of $28.5 million, or 42 cents a share, during its fiscal second quarter, down from $34 million, or 51 cents a share, during the same time period in 2017, according to its news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com