The Redmond spokesman., April 26, 2022, Page 15, Image 15

ON THE FRONT LINE
DURING THE PANDEMIC
Medline never closed its Redmond plant: “The team was here
producing and shipping medical devices ... without interruption”
BY TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
Cliff Ng
Stratos Aircraft expects to start selling these
jets in July or August.
advance to be sure each would arrive on time.
“The price change on some of the materials
has been incredible,” said Sundin. “Aluminum
has just about tripled in the last year.”
And then there’s the transportation industry,
which was ravaged by COVID-19 lockdowns.
Commercial flights ground to a halt as people
canceled trips. Business travel took a major hit
as more people worked from home and busi-
ness conventions were canceled. And recently,
a big jump in fuel prices have led to a big in-
crease in tickets prices.
Sundin thinks the disruptions to air travel
from 2020 to 2022 will ultimately benefit the
company.
“I don’t see any issue with it,” said Sundin. “I
think more people, if they can afford it, are go-
ing to want to fly privately (rather) than com-
mercial. There’s just so many hassles ... security,
rules and stipulations.”
If sales go well, Sundin said the company is
going to have to expand — and quickly. He did
not want to speculate on how many employ-
ees would have to be added, but they are likely
to do significant hiring in their manufacturing
division. Others will have to be added in sales
and human resources, and more space could be
needed to meet the demand.
“(The number of employees) depends on
number of orders,” he said. “I expect that by
early fall we will will see what the response is
and evaluate.”
Few businesses have gone through a
more intense few years than Medline, a
major Redmond employer that manu-
factures, repurposes and delivers medical
supplies throughout the world.
According to Steve Bettis, senior direc-
tor of manufacturing operations for the
company, the pandemic both tested and
strengthened their operations. Lives de-
pended on certain medical supplies getting
to the places that needed them most — all
while some traditional supply chains had
been cut.
“We definitely felt the impact of supply
chain issues,” said Bettis. “We have experi-
enced multiple shortages in packaging ma-
terials, raw materials, specialized plastics
and electronic circuit boards.”
In the early days of the pandemic, Bettis
said the company “invested in air freight
and prioritized medical supply deliveries
to COVID hot spots.”
The Illinois-based company sells more
than 300,000 products and has 20 manu-
facturing plants, one of which is in Red-
mond.
The company currently employs
264 people in Hub City, working out
of a facility that is doubling in size to
102,000-square-feet. Located east of
town on Hemlock Avenue, the new
52,000-square-foot expansion includes
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin file
Beverly Wilson assembles a tissue sealing
dissector at Medline in Redmond.
additional office space, conference rooms,
break room and employee fitness center,
as well as a manufacturing component
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin file
Debbie Rios works in the decontamination area at Medline Industries Inc. in Redmond where more than 200 employees work to
reprocess medical devices.
REDMOND PROFILES | APRIL 2022 | 9