Align to cut staff, move some operations to Costa Rica
Thursday, October 23, 2008 – 1:39 PM PDT
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
Aling Technologies Inc., announced a restructuring plan that will cut 111 job cuts.
Align (NASDAQ:ALGN) said the job losses in its Santa Clara headquarters will take place between now and January 2009. The remaining positions will be eliminated over the next few quarters as the company creates a new shared services organization in its existing Costa Rica operation that will consolidate customer care, accounts receivable, credit and collections, and customer event registration organizations.
Align’s Treat Operations facility has been in Costa Rica since 2002. It consists of 670 clinical technicians and support personnel and “provides a solid foundation to build a shared services organization that will create greater efficiencies by enabling the company to leverage the existing infrastructure and the talent base in Costa Rica at a lower overall cost,” Align said.
CEO Thomas Prescott said the plan “builds on the cost saving actions we announced in July. The majority of what we are doing is structural and many valued employees are affected. These actions, while difficult, are essential to Align becoming a more efficient company and will result in a more robust operating model with room to invest for future growth.”
As part of these actions, Align will record a restructuring charge estimated to be approximately $5 million, of which approximately $3.5 million will be realized in the fourth quarter and the remainder over the first half of 2009.
As of Sept. 30 Align had approximately 1,400 employees.
