Fort Worth’s City Council on Tuesday approved an incentive package of up to $6 million to support a possible expansion by one of the city’s largest employers, Alcon Laboratories Inc.
The global eye-care company, which employs about 4,500 people in Fort Worth and ranks among the city’s top employers, is considering relocating two manufacturing lines from Europe to its South Freeway campus. The move could bring an estimated $186 million investment and 241 new full-time jobs.
Under the terms of the agreement, Alcon would be eligible for up to 70% of the grant rate — about $4.2 million — if both manufacturing lines are relocated.
To unlock the full incentive amount, Alcon would need to invest a minimum of $186 million by the end of 2028, including $68 million in real estate improvements and $118 million in new equipment. The city projects it would see a full return on investment within one year, including roughly $3.5 million in new tax revenue.
The incentives extend beyond the city level. Fort Worth has nominated Alcon for the Texas Enterprise Zone Program, which would allow for a state sales and use tax refund of up to $1.2 million over five years. To qualify, Alcon must retain 1,540 employees and invest $40 million in facility upgrades.
Company executives may also be weighing the expansion as a way to mitigate tariff costs. In July, the U.S. announced a 15% tariff on autos and auto parts, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors. In August, Alcon reported $27 million in tariff-related charges in the three previous months and projected a $100 million impact for the year — up from an earlier estimate of $80 million. Relocating production to Fort Worth could help offset those costs.
As an aside, an executive recently said his Fort Worth-area company was “living, breathing proof of [the benefits] of the Trump tariffs.”
Alcon, founded in Fort Worth in 1945 by William “Bill” Conner and Robert “Bob” Alexander, remains deeply tied to the city despite its global headquarters moving to Geneva, Switzerland. The company is also one of Fort Worth’s largest property taxpayers.
Conner, then a district manager for Wyeth Pharmaceutical Company living in Dallas, and Alexander, a Wyeth salesman, met on a sailboat on Lake Worth and laid out plans for a new kind of pharmaceutical business focused on eye care.
From that conversation, Alcon was born. What began as a two-man Fort Worth venture grew into a global leader in ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, vision care, and surgical products.
Over the decades, Alcon rose to become the world’s largest and most influential eye-care company. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1971 — only the second Tarrant County company to do so — Alcon was acquired by Nestlé in 1977, a deal that fueled growth through acquisitions and innovations such as the AcrySof intraocular lens, used to treat cataracts, which became one of its cornerstone products. By the late 1990s, Alcon had annual sales of $2 billion.
After merging with Novartis in 2011, Alcon later regained its independence. In April 2019, the company was spun off from Novartis as an independent, publicly traded company. Today, Alcon trades under the ticker symbol ALC on both the New York Stock Exchange and the SIX Swiss Exchange.