"Utah is home to hardworking people with immense engineering and technical talent, many of whom can be credited with Varian’s success in the manufacturing of our state-of-the-art X-ray technology," said Dow Wilson, CEO of Varian Medical Systems.
"Today we celebrate more than 45 years of Varian’s economic partnership with Utah which continues to be a sound investment for the future of our company, the state of Utah and Utah’s citizens."
Salt Lake City serves as the headquarters for manufacturing Varian’s X-ray products and the additional space will allow for Varian’s flat panel image detector and X-ray tube product lines as well as cleanrooms, R&D laboratories, expanded manufacturing space and administrative offices.
Today, approximately 70 percent of the orders for X-ray products come from customers outside the U.S., making Varian Medical Systems one of Utah’s largest exporters.
The effort to expand Varian’s presence in Salt Lake City began in January of this year through a partnership with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED). The GOED Board of Directors has approved a tax credit of some $7.1 million in the form of a post-performance Economic Development Tax Increment Finance (EDTIF) incentive, in anticipation of receiving more than $35 million from Varian in new state tax revenues over the fifteen year life of the agreement.
Currently, Varian employs 860 people in Utah. The expansion effort will add 135,000 square feet to the existing 341,000 square foot building and is expected to generate more than $400 million in new state wages.
