By Brice Wallace
GE Healthcare will expand its operations in Logan, adding 68 jobs over the next five years.
The announcement came after the company was approved for a tax credit of up to $254,554 by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board.
GE Healthcare manufactures and distributes diagnostic imaging agents and radiopharmaceuticals for imaging technologies used in medical imaging procedures. The company develops health technology for medical imaging, diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}
Established in 1994 and a subsidiary of General Electric, GE Healthcare operates in more than 100 countries and has more than 50,000 employees worldwide.
The $31 million project in Logan is expected to result in new wages projected at about $10 million over the next five years and new state tax revenue of nearly $1.7 million during that period. The new jobs are expected to pay an average of $44,000.
The Logan operation’s roots extend to the 1960s when a Utah State University professor, Rex Spendlove, founded HyClone Laboratories. The company was purchased by Fisher Scientific International in 2003 and later became known as Thermo Fisher Scientific after a merger with Thermo Electron Corp. A part of the Thermo Fisher operation in Logan was sold to GE Healthcare in 2014. The company has five buildings in the Cache Valley area.
Owen Barrott, GOED incentives analyst, described GE Healthcare as “one of the stalwarts of our life sciences industry.”
“They do a great job in Logan,” Barrott told the GOED board. “They’re a very good partner with the community. They do a lot of work with Utah State University. So, [it’s] very exciting that they’re growing.”
Justin Meeham, the company’s Logan site leader, said the work in Logan involves making raw materials for drug manufacturers. Operations there have added more than 135 jobs during the past year.
“For us, not only is there the excitement of going to work every day and helping your friends and relatives, our friends and relatives, that are probably getting some level of treatment that we can be a part of, but the history and the growth here in Utah is pretty significant for us,” Meeham said, adding that Logan had competition for the project from other sites.
“GE’s got a wide spread, and when they’re looking at where to put the next factory or where to grow, there’s a lot of options just locally across the United States but also globally,” he said.
Logan Mayor Holly Daines said the company “is a really an important part of our locally economy.”
“As mentioned, they’ve been there for a long time,” she told the board. “It was locally founded. It’s grown. We’re thrilled about that. We realize they have other choices and locations where they can be, and we’re delighted they would like to expand in Logan, and that will help us.”
In a prepared statement, Val Hale, GOED’s executive director, said that “adding another well-known company to the state’s life sciences roster helps to strengthen that diversity. We’re glad GE Healthcare has chosen to expand in Utah and bring more jobs to Cache County.”
“As part of our global strategy and outreach initiative, EDCUtah and GOED connected with GE Healthcare in 2018, and as a result, Gov. [Gary] Herbert visited company executives in Boston that summer,” said Theresa A. Foxley, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “We were excited when the local GE Healthcare management team contacted us this fall to discuss this expansion opportunity, and we’re glad to see the project come to fruition.”{/mprestriction}
