by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | August 29, 2018
Philips has announced it is moving another 280 of its remaining Andover, Massachusetts positions to new locations.
Plans currently slate the departure for 2020, Silvie Casanova, Philips director of communications,
told the Eagle Tribune.
About 120 of the positions are heading for the firm's Reedsville, Pennsylvania location, where workers “will have the opportunity to transition with their role,” she noted. About 160 of the slots are heading to Philips' new Cambridge headquarters.
Alex Vispoli, chairman of the Andover board of selectmen, called the decision to relocate the jobs to Cambridge “disappointing.” It was particularly hard, he added, as they “were told that the ultrasound division would stay in Andover.”
Despite numerous meetings between town manager Andrew Flanagan, Paul Materazzo, the town's director of planning, and Philips executives, Vispoli noted, that was not to be.
"Ultrasound employees whose roles require closer collaboration and proximity to customers, partners, academic institutions and technology leaders so that we can truly partner and co-create solutions for the future of health care will transfer to Philips' new location at Cambridge Crossing," Casanova said.
The company had already said in January that it would transfer 1,900 positions from Andover. At that time, it announced that it was moving its U.S. headquarters from Andover to Cambridge, as well,
according to the Boston Globe.
Plans call for the new Cambridge location to become the world hub for the firm's healthcare efforts, pulling together R&D, already in the Boston area, and innovation and commercialization groups into one place.
CEO Frans van Houten told the paper at the time that this was part of the transformation of the conglomerate into a healthcare-focused company.
“This is all about location and proximity to innovation,” he said. “We need to be in the hot spots of healthcare innovation, close to universities, where you can find the talent for the next generation of innovation.”
As part of this, said the company chief, there has been a buying spree in the past few years that has included roughly 14 healthcare firms.
“We’ve done a massive transformation toward healthcare technology,” he noted to the Globe.
