Together with the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED),Ottobock, a medical technology company, announced that it will expand its existing manufacturing and R&D center in Utah.
“The international reach of Ottobock HealthCare strengthens and diversifies Utah’s life sciences and composites sectors,” said Spencer Eccles, GOED executive director. “Utah is a destination for global business expanding in the U.S. With this expansion, the company will find our multilingual and productive Utah employees unrivaled by any other workforce around the world.”
Founded in Germany in 1919, Ottobock manufactures the most advanced prosthetic devices in the world and has been recognized as the innovative leader in the prosthetics industry for many decades. The company also offers a diverse portfolio of products and services including mobility and seating systems, custom orthotics, orthopedic devices and many others. Ottobock is headquartered in Duderstadt, Germany and employs more than 7,000 people worldwide.
The company’s mission is to restore and improve the independence of people with mobility challenges and improve their Quality for Life. That mission has also inspired the company to create the Ottobock Foundation to help care for survivors of natural disasters and to partner with many local and global Non-Profit organizations with the goal of improving the level of care provided to underprivileged individuals all over the world.
“The functions that will relocate and merge with current operations in Salt Lake City, Utah will take advantage of our existing infrastructure and build synergies within manufacturing to better support evolving policy and procedure compliance,” said Andreas Schultz, president and CFO Ottobock North America.
Ottobock HealthCare’s expects to add more than 80 new jobs in the coming years, 55 of which will be contracted with the state to pay a minimum of 125 percent of Salt Lake County’s average wage including benefits.
“With the addition of Ottobock to Utah’s life sciences cluster, we see the industry continue to mature in the state,” said Jeff Edwards, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah). “It is important to companies like Ottobock that Utah has a well-established cluster where deep and mature talent pools increase their efficiency.”
Throughout the seven-year life of the agreement with the state, the company will pay out $16,219,299 in new state wages. Utah’s economy will also benefit from $1,960,095 in new state tax revenues and $1,000,000 in capital expansion investment.
As part of a contract with Ottobock, the GOED Board of Directors has approved a maximum cap tax credit of $392,019 in the form of a post-performance Economic Development Tax Increment Finance (EDTIF) incentive, which is 20 percent of the net taxes Ottobock will pay over the seven-year life of the agreement. Each year as Ottobock meets the criteria in its contract with the state, it will earn a portion of the tax credit incentive.
For additional information on Ottobock, visit http://www.ottobockus.com.