Smith & Nephew Cuts About 150 Jobs in TennesseeSmith & Nephew Cuts About 150 Jobs in Tennessee

Smith & Nephew is cutting about 150 jobs in Memphis, TN, primarily in manufacturing, as part of an ongoing productivity improvement program. The layoffs were first reported by MassDevice and later confirmed by Medtech Dive.

During recent earnings calls, CEO Deepak Nath has talked about the company's continued turnaround plan since he took the job in 2022.

"My assessment when we began this turnaround was that Smith & Nephew was a portfolio of fundamentally good businesses with excellent technology and the right to win in every part of the company," Nath said during the company's earnings call in August. "The diagnosis of why we want that full potential was that we had challenges around execution and culture, and we developed the 12-point plan to address those remaining issues. The progress we've made since 2022 is evidence that we had the right diagnosis, and we are now firmly on the path to the better financial outcomes that we've been aiming for."

More recently, during the company's earnings call in November, Nath mentioned that the company is "focused on operational improvements in-house" and that there had been "quite a bit of progress" on those efforts.

Nath also talked about the company's 12-point plan in February.

"We continue to transform the way we operate Smith & Nephew through our 12-point plan, which aims to drive better execution in a more focused and accountable business unit structure," Nath said during the February 27 earnings call. "Our progress against the plan has laid the groundwork for improvement in U.S. recon with better product availability and improving set deployments by the end of the year. Our innovation strategy is delivering a strong pipeline of new products to drive consistent high growth over the coming years. And our productivity is visibly improving."

The recent job cuts in Memphis are reportedly tied to the company's ongoing productivity improvement plan, according to Medtech Dive.