Uniroyal to build Brandon plant by:JEAN GRUSS The Tampa Tribune
1/1/1999
TAMPA - Uniroyal Technology plans to begin making components for LEDs before the end of the year.
Uniroyal Technology Corp. is locating a semiconductor plant near Brandon with the promise of 120 skilled jobs.
It's the first high-tech company to establish a facility in Hillsborough County since industry recruiters unveiled a plan earlier this month to try to attract more of those kinds of businesses.
The Sarasota-based company will move into a 68,000-square-foot warehouse building at Sabal Park next month and will start operations there before the end of the year.
"Our machinery is being built right now," said Martin Gutfreund, Uniroyal's vice president of human resources and administration.
Uniroyal Technology will make components for high-brightness, light-emitting diodes, which are semiconductors that give off light when charged. LEDs are used to light a wide range of electronic products, from cellular phones to flat panel displays.
For example, high-brightness LEDs are being installed in traffic signs because they use a fraction of the energy and have longer life than ordinary light bulbs.
LEDs look like tiny dots of light, but put together they can create a single bright light. While technology limits the colors of LEDs - most are red - new developments will let Uniroyal make other colors such as blue and green.
The total LED market in 1997 was nearly $2 billion and could reach $3 billion by 2006, according to Strategies Unlimited, a Mountain View, Calif.-based research firm that tracks technology companies. The Tampa project is a joint venture of Uniroyal and New Jersey-based Emcore Corp. Uniroyal is spending $5 million to acquire the technology license from Emcore to make LEDs, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Company officials, who were looking at half a dozen other possible sites, credited local economic development and government officials with helping them locate in the Tampa area.
The facility, which will more closely resemble a laboratory than an assembly plant, will consist of clean rooms where technicians will manage sensitive instruments and chemicals to make LED components.
Annual wages for most of the employees will be in the high $20,000s to mid-$30,000s, Gutfreund said.
Uniroyal's venture into LEDs is a new direction for the company that is better known for its plastic and chemical products. The company's products include bullet-proof glass for banks and convenience stores, aircraft windows, lenses for tanning beds, seats for golf carts and snowmobiles, kayak shells and marine trim.
Uniroyal, which employs 1,200 people at 12 manufacturing plants in 10 states, reported sales of $208.5 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 28. That was an increase of 8.5 percent over sales of $192.1 million in 1996.
Somerset, N.J.-based Emcore, which has 271 employees, reported $47.8 million in revenues for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, up 72 percent from the $27.8 million in 1996.
Jean Gruss covers real estate and economic development and can be reached at (813) 259-7762 or by e-mail at jgruss@tampatrib.com
