WESLACO, Texas - Weslaco Economic Development Corporation has welcomed Johnson Controls to its city.
“We are excited to have Johnson Controls. They are a huge company. They have over 150,000 employees, worldwide. They are in 2,000 locations across the country. That we can attract a company of this magnitude says a lot about this community,” said Steve Valdez, executive director of Weslaco EDC.
Weslaco EDC recently hosted a meet and greet for the manufacturing firm, whose corporate headquarters are in Milwaukee. Maria Ochoa, senior warehouse and logistics manager, for Johnson Controls, spoke at the event.
“Johnson Controls is extremely excited to come to Weslaco. McAllen fought really hard to keep us but they have absolutely no space for us. We needed a building where we could fit product coming in from our two Brownsville facilities and the McAllen one,” Ochoa said.
"The only place that was pretty much ready to go was Weslaco. Not only was the space available it was the actual location. We have two plants in Matamoros and a plant in Reynosa. So, our facility is going to be feeding both plants as per their production schedules.”
In a Q&A, Ochoa said the plan is to bring approximately 100 jobs to the Weslaco facility. There was applause from the audience when she made this announcement.
“Twenty of those are coming from McAllen, so we already have them. The other 20 are coming from Toronto, Canada, and about 60 from Brownsville,” Ochoa said.
Before the meet and greet started, Ochoa gave an interview to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service.
“So, I manage the site we are going to be bringing here. I manage the sites in McAllen and I kind of manage the ones in Brownsville,” Ochoa said.
“We have been in the Rio Grande Valley for about 35 years. We were originally in Pharr for about 25 years. Then we moved to McAllen for five years. Now we are coming here.”
Asked what Johnson Controls manufactures, Ochoa said: “We provide products for your buildings, to make your buildings efficient. So, we manufacture chillers, air conditioners, controls, valves, anything that you are building is going to need from the ground up, we manufacture. Like the grilles, the fusers, louvers, anything for your building.”
Ochoa said the company has about 150,000 workers worldwide and has operations in six continents.
“We are very, very, large. In the Valley we have about 80 employees but that is counting those in Brownsville. We are going to be closing McAllen and Brownsville. Everything will be located in Weslaco. The capital investment is $5.5 million.”
Asked why Johnson Controls was moving out of McAllen, Ochoa said: “It was purely lack of space. We have two facilities in Matamoros, manufacturing facilities, and one in Reynosa. Weslaco is kind of like the middle point. So what we do is receive raw materials and we send them to the manufacturing facilities. Weslaco is exactly in the middle between Reynosa and Matamoros.”
Ochoa has worked for Johnson Controls for 11 years. “It is an extremely good company. They have treated me extremely well. They have sent me to Durango, Mexico, to Canada, anywhere where we have facilities and issues with manufacturing, I usually end up going there.”
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