BD to invest at least $25M, hire 22 workers in Johnston County

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Medical device company Becton, Dickinson & Company, or BD, will expand its footprint in Johnston County with the addition of a manufacturing site at the Four Oaks Business Park, where it has maintained a 720,000 square foot distribution center since 2010.

The company plans to invest between $25 and $30 million, according to a statement.  And the new manufacturing site will employ 22 people initially with average annual wages of more than $83,000, the statement noted.  The company already employs about 300 workers at the business park.

With the investment, BD will construct a medical device processing facility described as “state-of-the-art” in the statement, with a footprint of about 30,000 square feet initially.

Construction will begin in 2023, and the project is expected to be completed in 2024 with the site operational by the end of 2024.

BD is buying Durham-based Parata Systems in a cash deal in excess of $1.5 billion.

Growing in NC

Johnston County beat out eight other locations in three total states, including North Carolina, the statement noted.

“BD already has a strong presence in North Carolina — with four facilities and more than 1,000 employees across the state — and we look forward to growing our investment in the state and the town of Four Oaks with this new facility,” said Travis Anderton, vice president at BD, in the statement. “We considered multiple locations across the United States, and a combination of our existing presence in North Carolina, proximity to one of our distribution centers and the incentives provided by Johnston County were the determining factors to locate in Four Oaks.

An economic analysis by Dr. Michael Walden, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University and President of Walden Economic Consulting, LLC., estimates an $18 million one-time economic impact due to the project and an estimated $15 million to the county’s annual gross domestic product.  (Editor’s Note: Walden is also a regular contributor to WRAL TechWire.)

“This exciting announcement grows our life sciences industry and extends it to the I-95 corridor,” said Randy Jones, chairman of the Johnston County Economic Development Advisory Board, in a statement. “What BD is doing will have an important impact well beyond the Town of Four Oaks — boosting the Research Triangle’s biotechnology brand and underscoring the rising prominence of the BioPharma Crescent.”

Original Article Source: WRAL TechWire