Caterpillar Inc. bound for Texas

Caterpillar Inc., the producer of yellow construction and mining equipment, will be moving its headquarters to Irving, ending a ending its century-long history in Illinois.

“Caterpillar’s global headquarters relocation is a major win for the people of North Texas and the entire state,” said Governor Greg Abbott said in a release.

The move comes just a year after Caterpillar chose Irving as the city for its Electric Power division, a segment of the company that manufacturers generators. That project committed to creating 500 jobs in Irving and investing $5 million into the community.

Caterpillar said in the statement it has had a presence in Texas since the 1960s, but Illinois remains its largest concentration of employees in the world.

“We believe being in the Dallas Fort-Worth market will give us the ability to attract new talent and provide additional career opportunities for our current employees to aid in retention,” Caterpiller spokes woman Kate Kenny said. “We have more than 17,000 employees in Illinois,” including about 12,000 in the Peoria area, she said.

Additionally, Caterpiller said the move will improve global access to its employees, customers and dealer network due to the two major airports in the region.

Caterpillar, with more than 107,000 employees globally, is the latest major company to relocate to Texas, following in the footsteps of Tesla Inc. and Oracle Corp, which moved to Austin from California.

In addition to Caterpillar moving out of the Chicago area, Boeing announced earlier this year that it would be relocating to Arlington, Virginia.