Smith+Nephew plc

Is Smith+Nephew publicly traded?
Yes. Smith+Nephew plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange under ticker SN as a FTSE 100 company, with NYSE-traded ADRs under ticker SNN.

Who owns Smith+Nephew?
The company is independent, owned by its public shareholders. No parent company or controlling shareholder exists.

When was Smith+Nephew founded?
Thomas James Smith founded it in 1856 in Hull, England. It became T.J. Smith & Nephew when his nephew joined and incorporated in 1896.

How much revenue does Smith+Nephew make?
Smith+Nephew reported $6.16 billion in revenue for FY2025, spread across Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine & ENT, and Advanced Wound Management.

Where is Smith+Nephew headquartered?
The company is headquartered in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, with major US operations in Memphis, Tennessee, and Andover, Massachusetts.

What does Smith+Nephew make?
Its products include hip and knee replacement implants, the CORI surgical robot, arthroscopy and ENT devices, and wound care products including Allevyn dressings and PICO negative-pressure therapy.

Thomas James Smith opened a dispensing chemist shop in Hull, England, in 1856, supplying medical dressings to hospitals. His nephew Horatio Nelson Smith joined the firm, which incorporated as T.J. Smith & Nephew Ltd in 1896 and built its business on sterile surgical dressings.

Wartime contracts drove major expansion: the company was a principal supplier of field dressings in both World Wars, establishing brands like Elastoplast as household medical staples in Britain and Commonwealth markets. Smith+Nephew expanded into orthopaedic implants in the 1960s and listed on the London Stock Exchange, becoming a public company.

The modern company took shape through early-2000s portfolio transformation. The 2001 Plus Orthopedics acquisition built the joint replacement business, while the 2014 purchase of ArthroCare for $1.7 billion established sports medicine and ENT as a major unit. The 2013 divestment of consumer brands including Elastoplast to Beiersdorf completed the shift to professional medical technology.

Performance struggles in the early 2020s, including supply chain issues and margin deterioration, led to the 2022 appointment of Deepak Nath as CEO and a multi-year turnaround program. FY2025 results showed $6.16 billion in revenue with growth across all three units, while activist investor pressure from Engine Capital pushed for continued governance and portfolio improvement.

Smith+Nephew carries the standard regulatory and litigation exposure of a major orthopaedics company, including periodic device recalls and residual liability from the industry-wide metal-on-metal hip implant litigation of the 2010s.

Activist investor pressure has been the dominant scrutiny theme in 2024-2025: Engine Capital's campaign criticized years of underperformance and pushed for board changes and strategic alternatives including a possible sale, leading to governance concessions without a transaction.

No major product safety scandal specific to Smith+Nephew has emerged, though its devices carry the routine FDA recall history of the device industry.