Integra Shutters Lafayette Plant, Cuts 59 Employees

Integra Lifesciences recently filed a WARN notice with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development noting it will be closing its Lafayette ACell plant, laying off all but one of the 60 non-union employees currently working at the site.

“The company anticipates that the permanent closure of the facility will result in the termination of all employees at the facility, except one employee who will continue in a remote role,” the company said in a statement to the Journal & Courier.

The factory, which will reportedly close in April, manufactures the company’s Urinary Bladder Matrix portfolio. With the closure, the manufacturing of its tissue products and technologies for hernia and abdominal wall repair will move to its Columbia, MA, location.

Integra initially got ahold of the Urinary Bladder Matrix portfolio through the $300 million acquisition of ACell in 2021.

The first round of layoffs will take effect on April 26 for 52 employees. The second round will happen on May 31 and affect the remaining eight employees. The company noted that effected employees will receive separation benefits.

Integra’s announcement comes after a turbulent 2023.

The company spent most of the year contending with the voluntary recall of all tissue related products made in Boston and distributed between March 1, 2018, and May 22, 2023. The recall resulted in Integra pausing production at its Boston facility for most of the year. The facility starting back up in November 2023, according to the company’s presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last month and distribution is expected to resume in mid-to-late Q224.

Ending the year positively, however, Integra announced in December that it had signed an agreement to acquire Acclarent from Johnson & Johnson MedTech for $275 million. Acclarent is one of the largest balloon sinus dilations in the Otorhinolaryngology space, according to BTIG analysts.

The deal puts Integra in competition with Medtronic and Stryker, which analysts noted could be difficult. “While we believe there are cross-sell opportunities with ENT instrumentation and the rest of the CSS portfolio, areas such as navigation and shavers are also going up against companies such as Medtronic and Stryker who have very established presences in these peripheral ENT growth areas,” BTIG analyst Ryan Zimmerman wrote.