RSS Feeds|
• Front page • Metro • Sports |
One of South Carolina’s business success stories will be moving to northern California this summer.
Omnicell Inc., which paid $26 million for Rioux Vision last December, told workers Monday it will be shutting down the Pontiac medical carts plant and moving the operations to Livermore, about 45 miles east of San Francisco.
When the Mountainview, Calif.-based company announced its deal to buy Rioux Vision last December, it said it would keep the 60-employee plant at its site in Northeast Richland.
On Monday, the company issued a statement saying the move to the Silicon Valley will put cart manufacturing — “in near proximity to other Omnicell manufacturing and development resources.” The Pontiac plant will close July 3.
Efforts to reach Omnicell officials were unsuccessful.
Shawn Rioux (pronounced Rio) started the company in Sumter in 1997 to install and maintain wireless computer systems in hospitals. He moved to Pontiac Business Center off Spears Creek Church Road in 2003 to start making hospital carts equipped with wireless computers.
The plant started with 17 employees in a 12,000-square-foot building, and expanded to employ nearly four times as many employees in a building covering 32,000 square feet.
Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305.
