Hill-Rom Holdings breaks ground on expansion project at Welch Allyn campus in Skaneateles Falls

SKANEATELES FALLS, N.Y. — Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HRC) on Friday broke ground on an expansion project that will add about 100,000 square feet to its Welch Allyn campus in Skaneateles Falls.

Empire State Development (ESD), the state’s economic-development agency, last September offered an incentive package of up to $12 million to the Welch Allyn parent company to create more than 100 new jobs and retain 900 existing positions at its Skaneateles Falls plant.

Hill-Rom said it plans to invest more than $4.2 million of its own money to expand the manufacturing and research and development operations at Welch Allyn, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Hill-Rom in 2015 acquired Welch Allyn, a medical-device maker, for about $2.05 billion in cash and stock.

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 news release Friday.

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

Welch Allyn is the largest component of Hill-Rom’s front-line care business, in which the company is anticipating “potential future growth.”

The company expects Welch Allyn employees will begin working in the new facility in 2018.

Welch Allyn has “maintained a significant presence” in the region for more than 100 years, Hill-Rom said.

“The contributions of our Welch Allyn team to Hill-Rom’s ability to enhance outcomes for patients and their caregivers are substantial, and we are energized about our expansion and the new jobs we are bringing to Skaneateles Falls,” John Greisch, president and CEO of Hill-Rom, said in the release. He made his comments during Friday’s groundbreaking.

Chicago, Illinois–based Hill-Rom, a medical-technology company, on April 28 reported “strong” fiscal second quarter financial results, driven “in part” by the “success” of new Welch Allyn products such as the RetinaVue imager and Connex spot monitor.

In its fiscal second quarter, Hill-Rom reported earnings of about $34 million, or 51 cents per share, compared to more than $22 million, or 33 cents a share, in the prior-year period.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com