Alcon unveils $60M facility expansion in West Virginia

LESAGE, W.Va. (WOWK) — For decades, Alcon has been manufacturing products in Lesage that enhance sight and solve vision problems. And on Wednesday morning, they doubled down on their commitment to the Mountain State by cutting the ribbon on their new $60 million expansion of their Lesage facility.

Alcon is a Switzerland-based company with 17 manufacturing locations around the globe. Patrick Collier, Alcon’s Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Technical Operations, said that this new expansion sets the Lesage facility ahead of the rest.

“With this upgrade, we’re able to put, what I would say is, the most state-of-the-art facility that we have in all of Alcon. It’s a significant capital investment in technology, and it really creates a wonderful environment for our employees to work in,” said Collier.

The Lesage facility specializes in producing intraocular lenses that restore sight to cataract patients worldwide. Collier said they can produce 7 million intraocular lenses per year at the Lesage facility. This large-scale production has an economic impact of $65 million for Cabell County.

Bill Bisset, the President of the West Virginia Manufacturing Association, said that he hopes this long-term investment in West Virginia will lead to other businesses putting down roots in the Mountain State.

“I think it attracts other people in this industry to go, ‘Hey, if Alcon can be here, we can be here too.’ So that’s why we really need to trumpet our successes. I think, as Appalachians sometimes go, ‘Well, they’re not going to come here’. Well, guess what, it’s happening today, it’s happening in other places, we need to grow on our successes. You’re seeing a lot of it, I think, as you look up Route 2 here in West Virginia. We need to trumpet our successes and try and grow on them,” said Bisset.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito took a tour of the facility and credited West Virginians’ strong workforce for the expansion.

“I think that the reason Alcon is expanding here is because of the people who work here. The precision with which they have to move forward in their manufacturing processes. I toured the plant probably ten years ago; it’s so critical in terms of sterilization and cleanliness because of the product they make. So I think that the high quality of the worker and the product that they’ve manufactured for years is the reason they’re expanding here,” said Capito.

Alcon will continue to produce their eye care products in the old Lesage facility in the coming months, but all employees will transition to the new facility in 2026.