Trinity Biotech Cuts Jobs, Products

Trinity Biotech PLC, a developer and manufacturer of diagnostic products, said Friday it is reducing its work force to save $5 million annually, shuttering its Swedish manufacturing plant and discontinuing products as part of a major restructuring plan.

The Irish company said the restructuring plan will reduce complexities in the business and allow it to target research and development.

As a result of the restructuring, the company will incur a one-time write-off of about $39.5 million before taxes in the fourth quarter. The company said except for about $2 million for redundancy costs and the closure of the Swedish plant, the write-off has no cash impact.

Trinity decided to discontinue 106 hemostasis and 69 infectious-disease products. The company offers hemostasis test kits for the detection of blood disorders. The company said the halting of the hemostasis products will be negligible on revenue. Eliminating the infectious-disease products will have less than a 1 percent impact on the company's revenue, Trinity said.

In addition, Trinity is suspending development of a number of ongoing projects, the two most significant being an HIV over-the-counter product and the development of an HIV confirmatory test. The project suspensions will allow the company to focus on a small number of key projects in each division, Trinity said.

Meanwhile, the closing of the plant in Umea, Sweden, will result in an overall net savings of about $500,000 a year, Trinity said. The company will benefit from some of these savings in 2008, with the full impact in 2009.

The company is also recognizing an impairment of about $20.2 million against its intangible assets, primarily goodwill.

Trinity did not disclose in its press release the number of positions it is cutting and could not be reached by the Associated Press.

Shares of Trinity fell 30 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $8.15 in afternoon trading. The stock has ranged between $7.93 and $11.85 over the past year.