Thomas Bologna, Orchid’s chief executive, said his company will realize $1 million in annual savings in consolidating the East Lansing site into the Moraine facility.
In August, Orchid protested the loss of a $4 million-a-year Ohio government genetic testing services contract to a North Carolina vendor, Laboratory Corp. of America. Orchid bid $4.03 million for the state contract while LabCorp bid $3.86 million.
“Frankly, it was a little insulting to us,” Bologna said .
A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services could not be reached for comment.
Moraine will become the company’s main hub for paternity testing, and with the consolidation, will do all its paternity testing work there, the CEO said. The company’s customer service and call center work already are in place in Moraine.
Bologna would not say how many people his company has in Moraine today, but Orchid had 65 employees there in August. The 15 new employees to be brought in will be both new hires and transfers from Michigan, he said.
The local facility had an edge because it was slightly bigger, with the service and call center work already in place.
“Both were very, very good operations,” Bologna said of the Moraine and Michigan operations. “We had a bit more critical mass in our Dayton, Ohio facility.”
Orchid Cellmark is an international provider of DNA testing for forensic and family relationship applications. The company calls itself one of the largest providers of forensic DNA testing services.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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