Rogers Corporation to Leave Connecticut for Arizona

Rogers Corporation, a maker of specialty materials based in the quiet corner town of Rogers, Connecticut has announced it’s moving to Arizona. The Rogers Corporation was founded in its namesake town -- now a part of Killingly -- in 1832, and has been a fixture there ever since.

Originally a paperboard manufacturer, it now develops and manufactures high tech materials for a variety of different industries, including telecommunications, clean energy, and automotive.

Rogers has a global reach, and for the last 50 years its been developing operations in Arizona as a base for the west coast. About a third of its corporate headquarters staff are already located in the town of Chandler, and now the company said it’s time to make it official, and move the 70 remaining headquarters positions from Connecticut out west.

General Counsel Jay Knoll said it was a purely business decision.

"As we looked at and saw where the balance was shifting we see that it’s shifting more to the west coast," he told WNPR. "And when we looked at the greater Phoenix area, it’s the 6th largest metro area in the United States."

He said he doesn’t want the decision to be interpreted as a negative comment on Connecticut’s business climate.

"This is a headquarters decision, but still we’ll have significant business operations remaining in Connecticut," said Knoll. "We have a campus plus another manufacturing facility."

The company said some of the functions moving away from Connecticut include human resources, IT, finance, and supply chain support.

It's not yet clear how many of the 70 affected employees will transition from Connecticut to the new Arizona headquarters.