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June 11, 2019

Under the radar, UTC moved Carrier HQs out of CT

carrier florida connecticut utc Photo | United Technologies Corp. A Carrier refrigeration machine.
By Joe Cooper

United Technologies Corp.’s announcement that it will relocate its headquarters to Greater Boston following its merger with Raytheon isn't the only recent move by the Farmington conglomerate to shift a Connecticut-based corporate office.

In April 2018, the company officially moved the corporate headquarters of its formerly Farmington-based Carrier building systems business to a newly minted $115 million office tower in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Over the last year, it hasn’t been entirely clear where Carrier, a maker of HVAC, refrigeration, fire, security and building automation equipment, had its corporate headquarters. But a UTC spokeswoman on Monday afternoon confirmed to the Hartford Business Journal that Carrier’s home address is now 13995 Pasteur Blvd., near Interstate 95 in Palm Beach.

UTC previously said Carrier’s new 224,000-square-foot, glass-enclosed center would employ 450 people.

That leaves only two UTC companies left in Connecticut: East Hartford jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney and Farmington’s Otis Elevators.

Rumors have been swirling that UTC could also move Otis’ Farmington headquarters out of Connecticut once it is officially spun off as an independent publicly traded company, according to sources familiar with the situation. However, Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday afternoon that UTC told him Otis will remain in Connecticut post spin-off and that they are hiring new employees in Farmington.

UTC didn't comment on Otis' potential future headquarters. 

UTC also plans to spin off Carrier, which generated $4.6 billion in net sales during the fourth quarter last year, as a separate company in 2020.

Last week, UTC veteran David L. Gitlin was named Carrier’s new CEO and president. Gitlin most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Collins Aerospace, which the conglomerate obtained when it acquired Iowa-based aviation systems maker Rockwell Collins for $30 billion last November.

Judith F. Marks, who joined Otis as president in 2017 after previously serving as CEO of Siemens USA and Dresser-Rand, a Siemens division, was also named the elevator maker’s new CEO.

UTC, which acquired both Otis and Carrier in the 1970s, on Monday declined to disclose how many people it employs at each division in Connecticut or elsewhere. However, the company has very few Carrier employees left in the state, sources say. 

What UTC has disclosed this week is that it currently employs about 19,000 people in Connecticut and is committed to having a large presence here, at least for now. Many of those work in the company’s expanding aerospace business.

The 85-year-old conglomerate has long had a major presence in Palm Beach County, where it established a facility in the late 1950s. 

UTC last year leased a 16,000-square-foot penthouse office in West Palm Beach to house executive offices of the company’s newly expanded aerospace business -- Rockwell Collins Aerospace -- which was made possible by its combination of Rockwell Collins and UTC Aerospace Systems.

The luxury waterfront space also houses regional headquarters for Otis Americas. Otis and Pratt & Whitney also have offices in nearby Jupiter, Fla.

As of late November, UTC employed about 1,000 people in Palm Beach County, according to The Palm Beach Post.

UTC ended 2018 with approximately 240,000 workers worldwide, which includes about 30,000 employees it added as a result of its acquisition of Rockwell Collins, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Roughly 63 percent of UTC’s workforce is based outside the U.S., the filing said.

Photo | United Technologies Corp.

Under the proposed $121 billion UTC-Raytheon combination, at least 100 high-paying UTC jobs in Farmington will be relocated to the Boston area.

Still, UTC CEO and Chairman Gregory Hayes on Monday said the company is on pace to hire another 10,000 workers in 2019, and will continue adding jobs after completing its proposed tie-up with Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co.

The proposed all-stock-transaction, billed as a “merger of equals,” aims to give UTC shareholders about 57 percent ownership of the combined company and Raytheon shareowners the remaining 43 percent. UTC would have eight board seats and Raytheon would have 7, with the lead director from Raytheon. 

Hayes, who will be named CEO of the new company -- Raytheon Technologies Corp. --, on Monday downplayed questions over potential competitive concerns noting there is no product overlap between UTC and Raytheon.

Together, the companies will generate $74 billion in sales, making it the nation’s second-largest aerospace and defense company in terms of annual revenues.

This story has been updated to include comment from Gov. Ned Lamont.

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How the historic UTC, Raytheon combination came together

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4 Comments

Anonymous
June 12, 2019

The CT legislature does not seem to be Business friendly, the recent FLA, $15/hr. wage, potential Tolls Tax will only downgrade the business competitive ranking, #45 now. Warren Buffet just wrote an article saying, stay away form Big unfunded pension states, CT is $100 Billion unfunded. CT has lost many companies over the past few years, has CT legislature done anything to make the business climate better? It should be a priority to add business and create more jobs.

Anonymous
June 12, 2019

Gov Lamont and his democrat legislature have steadily been raising taxes and other non-financial impediments to doing business in the state. Now of course instead of raising taxes their latest tactic is to simply expand or create new taxes - assuming the business owners aren't bright enough to tell what is happening. I guess CT doesn't need the business, they'll just be the bedroom community for NY hedge fund managers and be happy that they ran the evil business out.

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