ST. LOUIS — A maker of medical equipment that in October said it had 146 full-time workers now says it will close its St. Louis plant and lay off 160 employees, citing "ongoing losses from operations."
Allied Healthcare Products Inc. said in notice to the state of Missouri that it would close its plant on The Hill, at 1720 Sublette Ave., and lay off the workers, starting about Feb. 21. Some are represented by International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the company said in the notice.
Fyler Storage Properties LLC owns the Allied Healthcare property and charges it $688,800 in annual rent, according to a regulatory filing. Allied Healthcare previously owned the 242,000-square-foot facility, which includes its headquarters and where it makes medical gas equipment, respiratory care products and emergency medical products but sold it in June for $8.3 million.
Allied Healthcare said in a regulatory filing that the staff reductions "will result in the termination of substantially all" of its union employees, a move that's expected to trigger withdrawal liabilities owed to multi-employer pension plans estimated at $17.5 million.
Allied Healthcare said there would be other costs associated with the move, but that it couldn't yet reveal them.
On a list of affected employees, the firm included "president & CEO." Its President and CEO is Joseph Ondrus, according to its annual report, issued Oct. 7. He got total compensation of $479,369 in fiscal 2022, according to the company's proxy statement.
Company officials couldn't immediately be reached.
For its fiscal 2022, which ended June 30, Allied Healthcare reported a loss of $5.4 million on sales of $27 million. That compared with a profit of $1.7 million on sales of $36.3 million in fiscal 2021.
While the COVID-19 pandemic increased sales of ventilator products that year, the annual report said that COVID-19 in fiscal 2022 was no longer "contributing positively to product demand."
Inflation had raised the cost of products and services the company uses to make its products, it said, with a price increase of $1.3 million in fiscal 2022.
It said it also faced difficulties in hiring and retaining hourly workers, requiring it to pay additional overtime for existing employees and leading to "inefficiency" and delays in shipments.
Allied Healthcare also said it faced supply chain issues in fiscal 2022.
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