Arvada Company Focuses on Matters of the Heart
Published Apr 16, 2005
COBE Cardiovascular Inc.’s 400,000-square-foot Arvada facility is quickly becoming the North American headquarters for its billion-dollar parent company, the Sorin Group.
“You’ll see more products being distributed through here and more, innovative products developed through here,” says COBE Cardiovascular Vice President and General Manager Bill Osgood.
The Sorin Group is headquartered in Milan, Italy.
COBE is engaged in the design and manufacture of medical devices for cardiac surgery, Osgood says. COBE’s 800 employees perform manufacturing, product development, marketing, sales, and distribution tasks.
Customers are primarily perfusionists, people who run heart-lung machines during bypass surgeries and cardiac surgeons, and given the nature of COBE’s products and their uses, quality is a major focus, Osgood says.
“Because we can’t have problems with our products in an operating room, consistent quality is the most important thing we do,” he says.
Osgood says cost containment is another challenge the company faces.
“We’re continually looking for ways to streamline our operations.”
Osgood says COBE had more than 1,000 employees in Arvada five years ago. “We’re producing the same amount of sales today with under 800,” he says.
COBE Cardiovascular got its start as COBE Laboratories, founded in 1964 by Bob Collins and Ran Bellows. The two launched COBE from Collins’ California garage. COBE Laboratories moved to Colorado in 1967, and the company grew rapidly by expanding into renal care products.
In 1990, Swedish renal care company Gambro AB acquired COBE Laboratories and transformed the cardiovascular division of COBE into COBE Cardiovascular. In 1998, Gambro AB sold COBE Cardiovascular to SNIA Medical Technologies Group. SNIA formed the Sorin Group in 2004.
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