One of Dallas-Fort Worth's largest employers is opening a new manufacturing facility in McKinney, bringing 500 high-tech jobs to the area. Here's the full article as printed in the Dallas Business Journal:
A new Raytheon manufacturing facility will bring 500 high-tech jobs to McKinney, the company announced Thursday morning.
Construction on the 200,000-square-foot factory will be completed in late 2020, the company said. The manufacturing plant adds to the defense contractor's already robust presence in North Texas.
Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) is one of the largest employers in Dallas-Fort Worth with 7,800 employees in the region, according to Dallas Business Journal research, with major hubs in McKinney and Richardson.
"This is an investment in the talented McKinney workforce," said Roy Azevedo, president of Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems business unit, in a prepared statement. "It shows we are serious about our presence in Texas and that we are here to stay."
The announcement comes just a couple of months after Raytheon and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) shocked the defense community by announcing a merger that would create, if approved by regulators, a company that will earn approximately $74 billion in 2019 pro-forma sales.
The new facility will fall under the umbrella of Space and Airborne Systems, SAS, which is headquartered in McKinney. Raytheon makes a bevy of products in McKinney, including sensors, which are ultra sophisticated cameras equipped on military aircraft.
Another of the company's business units, Intelligence, Information and Services, operates a major hub in Richardson where 1,950 people work. Company leadership told the Business Journal in May that IIS was looking to add hundreds of employees in Richardson over the next few years.
The University of North Texas conducted an economic analysis of Raytheon's impact on the region that coincided with Thursday's announcement. The university said Raytheon employed 3,622 people directly in Collin County and supported another 4,226 jobs through its suppliers and employee spend.
Several defense contractors with major operations in DFW have grown in recent years.
Lockheed Martin added 3,000 employees to its Fort Worth plant as demand for the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet rises, L3Harris is increasing the number of pilot training simulators to its Arlington location, and Triumph Group is hiring hundreds of employees in Red Oak as the company is a major supplier of Boeing T-X trainer jet.