Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Carlyle's Talaris to Outsource Small Change


The Carlyle Group purchased Talaris, a manufacturer of cash systems, in September 2008. Watertown Daily Times reported:

“Talaris is exiting from the manufacture of coin products so that we can focus on our core competencies - sales, service, engineering and design,” Chris Reagan, president of the company, said. “However, we remain committed to Watertown and its pool of skilled labor.”

In addition to manufacturing, Talaris has engineering, call center, service, repair and parts depot and finance functions in Watertown. According to Reagan, while no jobs are expected to be lost this year, there will be a reduction of between 20 to 30 positions in 2011. More than 120 people will remain employed at the site.

Losing 30 out of 150 jobs is a 20% reduction in head count. Talaris is outsourcing to Flex-tronics Internationals. It didn't say where Flextronics would manufacture high speed coin sorters and counters. A search of Flextronics web site produced no results for Talaris.

Private equity underwriters (PEU's) brag about job creation. It's a safe bet Carlyle will send Talaris jobs to a low cost segment of the world economy.