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Keen to get some information on Covidien (not parent Medtronic) footprint in Europe. What are total, manufacturing and sales FTE, number/location/function and number of FTE of manufacturing and R&D facilities.
Hello! Thanks for your question about Covidien's footprint in Europe. The short answer is that, while detailed information is not readily available, the company would appear to have approximately 2,838 European employees in manufacturing and 5,010 employees in other roles.
Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
To answer this question I reviewed company documentation for both Covidien and Medtronic (looking for Covidien-specific information), as well as media resources. Unfortunately there was not a lot of information available, but I was able to provide some details based on a number of assumptions/calculations (included below).
FINDINGS
Unfortunately there is little detailed information regarding European employees for Covidien; however, I was able to make a rough estimate of the total European employee count, and also how many were employed in the company's European manufacturing facilities.
***Manufacturing***
According to Covidien's 2013 report (the last available), the company had 9 manufacturing facilities in Europe (3 in Ireland, 2 in France and Germany, and 1 in Italy and the UK). I was unable to find any mentions of any factories closing or opening since the acquisition by Medtronic, so we can assume that the previous 9 still exist. Also according to the 2013 report, the Middle East/European factories accounted for 11% of the company's total production, as measured by the cost of production. The company has only one Middle Eastern factory (in Israel), so if we exclude this we are left with approximately 10% of production from European factories.
According to their corporate website, Covidien currently has 43,000 employees overall, nearly two-thirds of whom work in manufacturing (28,380 employees). With the above recognition that some 10% of the company's production comes from Europe, we can assume that there are around 2,838 European employees in the manufacturing segment.
***Non-manufacturing employees***
In order to calculate the remaining Covidien employees in Europe, I reviewed the Medtronic global/Europe employee ratios and used this, combined with the Covidien total employee number, to estimate how many Covidien employees are in Europe.
Medtronic only provides data for Europe/Central Asia/Middle East/Africa, so we will need to use this as a rough estimate for Europe as a whole (where I imagine the bulk of employees are based).
Between FY2016 and FY2015, Medtronic's total employee numbers increased by 44,181, of which 43,000 were Covidien employees (as mentioned above). This means that 97.3% of the company's total employee gains for the fiscal year were a result of the Covidien acquisition. In terms of Medtronic's European employee total, this increased by 8,066 employees. If we use the same percentage as above, this means that the acquisition of Covidien added 7,848 European employees to Medtronic.
Deducting the manufacturing numbers that we calculated earlier, this means that Covidien has approximately 5,010 non-manufacturing employees in Europe.
Unfortunately I was not able to identify any further information regarding the breakdown of employees, so this 5,010 workers includes sales, support, R&D, etc.
***FTEs***
In terms of full-time versus part-time employees, just 2.29% of Medtronic's total workforce is part-time. Unfortunately the company does not provide detailed information in this regard for the European region except it terms of the female workforce, which is typically more likely to have part-time employment. Therefore I will use 2.29% as my estimate for calculating Covidien's European FTEs.
Total full-time employees = 7,848 * 0.9771 = 7,668
Total part-time = 7,848 - 7,668 = 180
Manufacturing full-time = 2838 * 0.9771 = 2773
Manufacturing part-time = 2838 - 2773 = 65
Non-manufacturing full-time = 5,010 * 0.9771 = 4,895
Non-manufacturing part-time = 5,010 - 4,895 = 115
Based on these figures, if we assume that each of the part-time employees is working a full half day, then we get the following results:
Total European FTEs: 7,668 + 180/2 = 7,758
Manufacturing European FTEs: 2,773 + 65/2 = 2,805.5
Non-Manufacturing European FTEs: 4,895 + 115/2 = 4,952.5
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, while there is limited detailed information on Covidien's employee breakdown in Europe. That said, based on a variety of other reported metrics, I was able to estimate that the company has 7,848 European employees, with 2,838 working in manufacturing facilities ( of which there are 3 in Ireland, 2 in France and Germany, and 1 in Italy and the UK) and 5,010 holding non-manufacturing positions. Of those holding non-manufacturing positions, unfortunately it is not possible to differentiate between R&D, sales, etc. In terms of FTEs, there are 2,805.5 FTEs in the manufacturing, and 4,952.5 in non-manufacturing functions.
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