New jobs: Cytiva adding 396 and Apogee Worx bringing another 100

Nearly 500 jobs will be added in Northern Utah over the next decade as a pair of companies expand their operations.

Therapeutics developer and manufacturer Cytiva will add 396 jobs over 10 years in Logan, while Ogden-based Apogee Worx LLC will add 100 jobs over the next eight years.

The projects were announced after the companies received tax credit incentives from the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board.

With more than 700 employees in Logan, Cytiva is part of the Danaher family of companies, a global science and technology innovator. It offers cell culture media and single-use consumables used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. The Logan operations previously were known as HyClone Laboratories and later as GE Healthcare Life Sciences.

“We are looking to double capacity here in Cache Valley. This $231 million [company capital expenditure] essentially doubles our footprint and doubles the output of the manufacturing processes,” Justin Meehan, plant manager, told the Go Utah board.

“We have a history here in Cache Valley. … Started right there in Logan, Utah, but as we face global competition and we’re in a global company, we’re trying to fight to continue to grow here and not have this product move elsewhere in the United States or elsewhere in the region.” The incentive, he said, “goes a long way in securing that and making us more competitive than some of those other areas.”

Those other areas include several locations where Cytiva and its parent company have operations, both in the U.S. and abroad, according to Daniel Royal, Go Utah’s director of corporate growth and business development.

“This expansion could happen at any of those facilities, especially any of their facilities near biopharma hubs, especially on the East Coast like Boston or Raleigh, North Carolina,” Royal told the board.

The new jobs are expected to pay an average of $42,929. Total wages are projected at $155.3 million over 10 years, and new state tax revenue is expected to total $19.4 million during that time. The Go Utah board approved a rural tax incentive of up to $4.85 million over 10 years.

“Speaking for the mayor and the entire city, we’re just very excited about this project,” Kirk Jensen, Logan’s economic development director, told the Go Utah board. “We’ve got a nice life science cluster up here. Cytiva is a huge part of that. With this expansion, as Justin mentioned, effectively doubling capacity, that’s huge for us up here.”

Cytiva, based in Massachusetts, is a $3.3 billion global life sciences
company with nearly 8,000 employees in 40 countries involved in advancing and accelerating therapeutics that enable the development, manufacture and delivery of transformative medicines to patients.

“We’re excited Cytiva is growing, and we couldn’t be happier that the company is expanding its Logan location,” Dan Hemmert, Go Utah’s executive director, said in a prepared statement. “Utah has a robust healthcare industry, and it’s great to see companies like Cytiva deliver life-altering technologies around the world.”

“With this expansion, Cytiva continues its multi-year pattern of multi-million-dollar investment in Cache County,” said Theresa A. Foxley, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “It’s heartening to see Cytiva’s continued confidence in HyClone’s legacy — one of Utah’s original BioHive companies — and in Cache County’s future.”

Cytiva was approved for a nearly $1.5 million state incentive in December, linked to an $18.7 million project designed to create 160 jobs over five years. In late 2019, an incentive of $254,554 was approved for GE Healthcare Life Sciences, tied to adding 68 jobs over five years.

Cytiva in June acquired West Jordan-based Intermountain Life Sciences to increase its global production of buffers and liquid cell culture media. It said it would hire dozens of people in the Greater Salt Lake City area to ramp up production at Intermountain’s manufacturing site.

The Apogee Worx project in Ogden will occur as the company relocates its main operations to larger facilities near Ogden-Hinckley Airport.

Currently with 24 employees, Apogee is an aerospace company that focuses on U.S. Department of Defense aircraft systems integration with multiple current contracts upgrading Ogden Air Logistics Center-supported aircraft, such as the A-10 C. Apogee Worx designs and manufactures all components necessary to install new capabilities in military aircraft and also manufactures aircraft support equipment.

“After investigating options in other states, Apogee Worx is excited to be expanding in Northern Utah near the Ogden-Hinckley Airport and Hill AFB,” Steve Pollard, the company’s co-owner and co-founder, said in a prepared statement. “Utah provides clear benefits including access to a talented workforce and a deep aerospace industrial base. We appreciate the forward-leaning incentives provided by the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity that make this expansion possible.”

Speaking with the Go Utah board prior to the incentive approval, Pollard said the company is “bursting at the seams” at its current location.

“And we need to move up and out, and the facilities that we’ve found will keep us very close to the Ogden airport and still provide us access to the runways we need,” he said.

“We’re excited that this wonderful company wants to continue to grow and invest in our city,” Mark Johnson, Ogden City’s chief administrative officer, told the board. “We think that the jobs that they’re bringing on and the jobs they have brought on are very beneficial to our community.”

The Go Utah board approved a tax credit incentive of up to $812,437 for the $6.5 million project. The project is expected to generate new wages of about $46.6 million over eight years and new state tax revenue of about $5.4 million during that time. The jobs will pay an average of $84,400.

“Utah’s aerospace industry is growing rapidly, and we’re excited that Apogee Worx will be adding to that growth,” Hemmert said in a prepared statement. “This expansion will create jobs in engineering, software, manufacturing and more, benefiting residents in Northern Utah.”

“Apogee Worx is a vital and active player in Utah’s aerospace and defense supply chain,” Foxley said. “The expansion of their footprint in Northern Utah will continue to bring benefits to the region and the state.”