Damage Contained to Acid Shop Building; Some Temporary Impact to Sheffield Forging Operations
Business Continuity Plan Leveraging Symmetry's Global Infrastructure and Partners Deployed to Minimize Customer Disruptions
WARSAW, Ind., Sept. 16, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Symmetry Medical Inc. (NYSE:SMA), a leading global source of innovative medical device solutions, including surgical instruments, orthopedic implants, and sterilization cases and trays, confirmed today that a fire occurred at its Sheffield, UK manufacturing plant on Friday, September 13, 2013. The damage from the fire was confined to the Acid Shop, which was destroyed. No Symmetry employees or first responders were injured as a result of the fire.
No other operation at the Sheffield Plant was materially affected by the fire, including the machining centers, the forging equipment, the casting foundry, administrative functions, and data center. At this time, however, gas, electric, and water utilities serving the casting and forging areas of the plant have been discontinued until a safety evaluation is completed. The Company hopes to have these restored throughout the week.
The Acid Shop functions in conjunction with the Company's forging operation at the Sheffield Plant. Post forging, parts are immersed in acidic baths to facilitate removal of material from the forging process.
Thomas J. Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Symmetry Medical, stated, "Upon learning of the fire and confirming that all Symmetry Teammates and local residents were safe, we immediately deployed our Business Continuity Plan to manage our response, containment, assessment, and short/long term recovery plan. We have teams on-site to facilitate normal operations in the remainder of the Sheffield Plant and plan to ensure as little disruption as possible for the remainder of our operations. I commend the efforts of our local Symmetry Teammates in responding to the fire, along with thanks to the first responders from the Sheffield fire brigade whose outstanding work limited damage to the Acid Shop.
"We have reached out to all customers of the Sheffield plant to inform them of the situation and any potential impact to their orders. We have begun efforts to identify replacement capacity for our Acid Shop functions through internal and external capacity, and expect Symmetry's global manufacturing capabilities to help mitigate the impact of the fire. I would to thank our customers for their support and collaboration during this effort."
Approximately 250 Symmetry Teammates are employed at the Sheffield Plant. The facility accounts for approximately 30% of global implant capacity. Symmetry is in the early stages of assessing the financial impact of fire and any insurance benefits to which the Company may be entitled under its property and business interruption insurance policies. The Company expects to provide an update on the potential impact to its third quarter 2013 financial results after further review of the situation.
About Symmetry Medical Inc.
Symmetry Medical Inc. is a leading global source of innovative medical device solutions, including surgical instruments, orthopedic implants, and sterilization cases and trays. The Company's thousands of Teammates provide design, development and worldwide production capabilities for these products to customers in the orthopedic industry, other medical device markets, and specialized non-healthcare markets. Symmetry's trusted reputation and brands, broad Intellectual Property portfolio and commitment to innovation enable it to collaborate with hundreds of global medical device manufacturers as well as thousands of hospitals to provide solutions for today's needs and tomorrow's growth.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in the press release regarding Symmetry Medical Inc.'s business which are not historical facts may be "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are predictive in nature and are frequently identified by the use of terms such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," "intend," and similar words indicating possible future expectations, events or actions. Such predictive statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual outcomes and results could differ materially from our current expectations. We refer you to the "Risk Factors" and "Forward Looking-Statements" sections in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Company's other filings with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's Web site at www.sec.gov.