Going with the flow
As demand for water increases overseas, Watts grows its workforce worldwide
The story of Watts Water Technologies Inc. reflects the forces of globalization, both positive and disruptive.
First, the good news: S hares in Watts rose 33 percent in 2006 on the North Andover manufacturing company's strength supplying water valves, purification, and safety parts to buyers in China and Eastern Europe, even as demand from US residential construction tails off.
It's quite a situation for a firm founded in 1874 by Joseph Watts, a plumber who invented a steam-pressure regulator valve for textile companies in the Merrimack River valley. Today, Watts makes everything from treatment systems to plastic tubing, distributed mainly through wholesale plumbing warehouses.
Here's the disruptive part: Much of Watts's employment is growing overseas. Of the company's 8,300 employees worldwide, 3,000 of them are spread among its factories in China and the figure may grow, even though about 75 percent of the factories' production winds up returning to the United States. Employment at Watts's factory in Franklin, New Hampshire, peaked at about 700 jobs earlier in this decade, but now stands at 450, as many of the jobs have moved to the Far East. Another 150 or so work in North Andover.
"In our industry, you have to be cost competitive," says chief financial officer William C. McCartney. But the same forces of development overseas mean more demand for Watts's products, he notes.
Ross Kerber can be reached at kerber@globe.com. 
