Cook Medical saw its orders cut in half in the early part of the pandemic, but President Pete Yonkman said business this month is back to normal.
The company is hiring 300 workers and also is boosting its minimum wage for hourly employees starting Sunday. Some other employees will get one-time bonuses.
Cook, which is privately held and based in Bloomington, makes medical products, including injection needles, catheters and stents. Its products are also used in medical devices such as endoscopes, which are flexible tubes with a camera. The company provides products for specialities including gynecology, urology and gastroenterology.
Yonkman told The Herald-Times the company provides products to more than 40 medical specialties, and while the pandemic increased demand for products in one or two areas, demand for other areas dropped sharply as hospitals filled with COVID-19 patients. At the same time, many procedures such as joint replacements were delayed.
Yonkman said as hospitals learned to navigate through the pandemic, Cook’s business started to come back and now has returned to normal.
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