Delphi Medical takes residence in Frederick with Peak purchase

FREDERICK — In November, Delphi Medical Systems, a unit of auto-products giant Delphi Corp., won a $50 million contract to make vital-signs monitoring devices for Zoe Medical.

Still, Delphi Medical, founded in 2002, didn’t really have a manufacturing facility to call its own, relying on the parent company’s facilities in Troy, Mich.

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That changed last month, when Delphi Medical decided to pay $44 million to buy Peak Industries Inc., a rising star in the contract-manufacturing industry.

Under terms of the deal, the Peak facilities in Frederick will become Delphi Medical’s principal manufacturing site. Peak’s 280 employees will stay on for the foreseeable future to help Delphi Medical ramp up to serve its new customers, including Massachusetts-based Zoe Medical, which signed the $50 million contract.

“As far as the employees are concerned, we’re focused on growth,´ said Luce Rubio, a spokeswoman for Delphi Medical. “I’m sure there are going to be some changes, but the focus is on growth.”

One change is that Peak Industries founder Mark Hopkins will take a temporary consulting role with Delphi Medical until the transition is complete. That’s when Hopkins plans to move on to other ventures.

“Another year or so, and I’ll figure that out,” Hopkins said of his next business move. Before starting Peak Industries, Hopkins worked as an engineer for Hewlett-Packard Co. in Fort Collins.

Hopkins said Delphi Medical made an unsolicited offer to buy Peak Industries, which is expected to reach $72 million in sales this year.

“It’s not something we were out looking for,” he said. “Once it was presented to us as an opportunity, it took six to eight months to evaluate it.”

Delphi Medical was drawn to Peak because it’s registered as a medical device manufacturer with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While Peak manufactures equipment for non-medical clients, such as Hewlett-Packard Co., StorageTek and Coinstar Inc., medical devices had grown to become a majority of its business, Hopkins said.

Other medical products Peak was making under contract included metabolism analyzers for Healthetech Inc., a home dialysis machine for Aksys Ltd., and a spinal nerve detection system for Nuvasive Inc.

Delphi Medical said it’s committed to fulfilling all of Peak’s existing contracts.

According to Delphi Medical, the Colorado operations “would house key manufacturing, assembly and testing activities,” the company said in a prepared statement.

In addition to Zoe Medical, Delphi Medical has also won recent contracts to develop respiratory-care equipment for SRI International, and to make ambulatory intravenous pumps for Swiss company Debiotech, S.A.

“Employees trained and experienced in manufacturing for the medical-device industry are among the most valuable assets of the new company,´ said Christophe Sevrain, managing director of Delphi Medical.