Bio-Rad Laboratories, a Bay Area biotech giant best known for its diagnostic and research products, is laying off 5% of its staff — including more than 100 workers from its headquarters in Hercules.
The company announced the sweeping cuts in a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exmodify Commission, and gave local specifics in a WARN document filed with California officials. The WARN stated 113 workers will lose their jobs in Hercules, as well as 17 in Pleasanton and one in Richmond.
Three vice presidents will be laid off in the Bay Area, per the WARN document, as well as slews of engineers, scientists and project managers. Its offices won’t be closed, the WARN stated, but the layoffs are expected to be permanent.
Bio-Rad is a sprawling firm with a range of products. It sells tools utilized by life science research labs, such as for cell labeling and analysis, plus diagnostic devices for autoimmune diseases, diabetes and other diseases. The company has about 7,700 employees total, so the 5% layoff will likely hit more than 350 people overall.
Anna Gralinska, a spokesperson for Bio-Rad, informed SFGATE Friday that the layoffs primarily will hit United States workers, and that those affected will be offered severance pay and extconcludeed health care benefits.
“This decision, though difficult, was necessary as the markets we serve continue to be challenged by funding constraints,” Gralinska wrote. Bay Area biotech workers can speak to difficulties with funding and research in the sector; 2024’s brutal run of layoffs has yet to ebb in the new year.
Unlike some of its customers, Bio-Rad has plenty of room to continue. But it’s deeply unprofitable. The company put out a news release with the past year’s financial results on Thursday. Its revenues were down from 2023, and it reported a huge net loss for the year: $1.84 billion. In part, the company blamed an investment gone south, but on a Thursday call with investors, CFO Roop Lakkaraju alluded to low demand from researchers in academia, biotech and biopharma.
Lakkaraju also stated on the call that the cuts are part of an effort to “proactively manage our cost structure.”
Bio-Rad’s stock tumbled more than 5% on Friday, leaving the company with a midday valuation of just below $8 billion.
Work at a Bay Area tech company and willing to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
