After a wide-ranging search that could have moved the company out of state, health care device firm Smiths Medical said it will relocate more than 400 employees to a new headquarters in Plymouth.

The company, which had $1.3 billion in sales in its most recent fiscal year, will vacate its current headquarters in Arden Hills by 2016, relocating 400 employees who currently work there and bringing another 20 out-of-state employees into Minnesota.

An undisclosed number of new jobs will also be created at the headquarters in the near term, as Smiths tries to reach job-creation benchmarks to secure state economic development grants. The more high-paying jobs created, the greater the potential subsidies under Minnesota job creation programs.

"The decision to consolidate in the Twin Cities allows us to capitalize on the great talent and business environment in the region," Smiths Medical President and CEO Jeff McCaulley said in a statement. The move will start next year and wrap up in 2016, company officials said.

Smiths is seeking larger space and a corporate location more fitting for a global device company. The current campus on Grey Fox Road in Arden Hills includes 160,000 square feet of space, and the new headquarters in an existing building at 6000 Nathan Lane North in Plymouth has 182,000 square feet.

Smiths Medical is a unit of London's Smiths Group PLC, one of the largest 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange. Smiths Medical manufactures and sells drug-infusion pumps and consumables like catheters and needles to hospitals and surgical centers, competing with other large health care suppliers like Covidien and Becton Dickinson.

A joint company statement with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development said Smiths has met with government officials including Gov. Mark Dayton to discuss state assistance from two state funds.

The Minnesota Job Creation Fund allows for up to $1 million in incentives for companies that create at least 10 new full-time jobs paying at least $12.61 when the firms certify their projects would not have occurred without state assistance. Separately, the Minnesota Investment Fund has provided matching grants of up to $1 million to businesses seeking to hire more workers.

"The company's decision to bring jobs to Minnesota and invest in its operations here is good news for the industry and the state," said Katie Clark Sieben, commissioner of the state economic development department, in the statement.

Joe Carlson • 612-673-4779
Twitter: @_JoeCarlson