A Medical Device Daily

Medtronic (Minneapolis) laid off about 240 workers from a cardiovascular division plant in Santa Rosa, California this past Friday. The company plans to shift the work to a lower-cost facility in Ireland.

The round of layoffs may not be the last for the 900-employee plant, according to a report in The Press Democrat, a newspaper in Santa Rosa.

Friday's layoff at Medtronic isn't related to the current recession, according to the paper. It is part of the company's 5-year-old plan to shift manufacturing to Galway, Ireland, where tax rates are lower and where Medtronic already has about 3,000 employees.

The Santa Rosa facility is expected to remain a hub for research and development, marketing, regulatory affairs and other operations, including a small amount of manufacturing.

The Santa Rosa plant had 3,000 jobs when Medtronic bought it in 1999 as part of its acquisition of Arterial Vascular Engineering.