Hologic to lay off 86 employees during the last leg of Conn. facility closure

Photo | Grant Welker Hologic's Marlborough headquarters

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As Hologic gears up to cease operations at its Danbury, Connecticut facility in December, the Marlborough-based medical device manufacturer plans tol incrementally lay off 86 employees by the end of February.

Hologic anticipates laying off 71 permanent, full-time employees at its 37 Apple Ridge facility on Dec. 20, according to a Friday WARN notice filed with the Connecticut Department of Labor. Of the 15 employees the company plans to keep on to conduct final post-closure activities, Hologic expects to lay off three on Jan. 31 and the remaining 12 on or around Feb. 14 through Feb. 21.

Hologic plans to expand its breast and skeletal health business at its Newark, Delaware facility, according to an October 2021 press release. Intent to specifically close its Danbury facility by 2025 was made public in Hologic’s first quarterly report, filed on Feb. 2, 2022 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Manufacturing of the Danbury breast health products and other support services were already in the process of being transferred to Hologic’s Newark, Delaware facility. Research and development, sales and services support, and administrative functions were being transferred to the company’s Delaware and Marlborough facilities.

While Hologic said in the 2022 report the majority of the location’s employees were offered to relocate to another facility, the company recognized most employees were unlikely to transfer. Total severance and benefits charges, including expenses related to retention, will be roughly $5.9 million, according to the company’s 2023 annual report.

“In October 2021, we announced that we would be moving operations to our facility in Newark, Delaware, which has been renovated and expanded to centralize manufacturing and R&D. Employees in Danbury were given the option to relocate to the Newark facility and we have been supporting our employees throughout the transition,” Bridget Perry, a spokesperson for Hologic, said in an email to WBJ on Thursday.

The Connecticut closure comes after Hologic announced in a Feb. 8 SEC filing it expected to layoff an unspecified amount of employees at international locations and close some of its facilities in 2024 amid a restructuring of the company’s diagnostics division due to declining sales of its COVID-19 tests. Hologic said it foresaw paying approximately $4 to $8 million in severance benefits.

With 766 local employees and 6,944 worldwide, Hologic is the 11th largest manufacturer in Central Massachusetts when ranked by number of local employees, according to data provided to the WBJ Research Department. Hologic generated $4 billion in revenue in 2023.

Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.