Charleston Regional Development Alliance

Berkeley, Charleston & Dorchester Counties

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Hill-Rom to expand production line in 2004

Nov. 1, 2003
Charleston Post and Courier
Hospital-bed maker Hill-Rom Inc. said it will add to its local payroll and production line next year when it moves about 50 manufacturing jobs and possibly some workers to North Charleston from Minnesota as part of its latest acquisition.

Hill-Rom's parent company, Hillenbrand Industries Inc. of Batesville, Ind., bought Advanced Respiratory Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., this week for $83 million. Hillenbrand made the purchase to expand its clinical division, which is headquartered here near Leeds Avenue and Interstate 526.

Advanced Respiratory makes a high-frequency air-activated vest that enables patients with cystic fibrosis and other breathing ailments to clear their lungs at home without assistance.

The manufacture of the portable device will be moved from the St. Paul area to South Carolina, probably by next spring, said Hill-Rom spokeswoman Kim Tipton.

Hill-Rom is relocating that part of the business because it has more production capabilities at its division headquarters on Corporate Road, Tipton said.

"Our manufacturing facility there is able to produce this product en masse," she said.

Also, Tipton said, Hill-Rom hopes to expand sales of the airway-clearing vests, which sell for $16,000 each, to large hospitals and customers overseas, and the Charleston region is a better distribution point for national and international orders.

Advanced Respiratory, which reported sales of $40 million last year, has estimated that 9 million Americans have chronic lung disorders and diseases.

Hill-Rom is offering its new employees whose jobs are being moved a chance to relocate to the Lowcountry, Tipton said.

"Obviously, they have the experience ... and we'd like to retain some of that experience," she said.

In instances where workers elect not to move, their positions would be filled with local hires, she said.

Hill-Rom's clinical division specializes in non-invasive therapeutic medical products, such as hospital beds for burn patients.

Its main customers are hospitals, long-term health-care facilities and the home-treatment market.

The clinical division is one of five created earlier this year under a major restructuring of the 6,000-employee Hill-Rom. The unit employs about 275 workers in North Charleston and 90 field representatives, who are based in key sales markets.
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