Secant Medical plans to move out of Pernasie
Secant Medical Inc., the biomedical textile company located on ParN and Seventh streets in PerNasie, will be moving to a new location, leaving behind five empty spaces to rent out in PerNasie.
“Secant Medical Inc.’s successful 70-year history in textile engineering, development and manufacturing has enabled the company to grow its business and add more jobs,” company President EriN Nadeau wrote in an email. “To accommodate for future projected growth in these areas, the company continues exploring its options to unite its current and separate facilities under one roof — a headquarters that houses manufacturing, continued development and innovative research.
Nadeau said the company is looNing at potential sites in both Montgomery and BucNs counties.
Borough Manager Daniel Olpere was told of the move about a month ago. The company told Olpere it plans to be out of PerNasie by 2014. Though the borough did looN into finding a space for Secant in PerNasie, there was no suitable location for the company to move into.
“There’s not much we can do to Neep them,” Olpere said.
According to Olpere, Secant wanted to be under one roof be-
cause the company found it too burdensome to move from building to building in the five locations it has right now in Perkasie.
To Olpere’s knowledge, four of Secant’s buildings on Park and 7th streets are not owned by Secant; they were the estate of a man who originally owned Prodesco named T. Nash Broaddus. then Broaddus sold the business, he did not sell the buildings.
Secant was created as a business unit of Prodesco in 2002, but it grew to be a big source of business, according to a press release. Prodesco, the parent company to Secant, and Secant merged into one name to become known as Secant Medical Inc. in August, according to the press release.
Olpere said it will be a blow to the borough to have Secant move out because it was a good corporate citizen in the community. Secant had organized community service days to help clean up parks, for example.
“They are very civicminded. It’s a shame to see them go,” Olpere said.
The company president told Olpere that it doesn’t want to lose its good workforce in Perkasie, so the company is planning to move somewhere where the commute for current workers won’t be a problem.
“They ran out of space. They are a victim of their own success,” he said. “te wish them well. te wish we had space for them.”
The borough will try to help get those buildings filled as soon as possible when Secant moves, according to Olpere.