With all of the small, locally-owned businesses we are blessed with here in southern Denton County, it can be easy to forget that there are a number of large enterprises right in our backyard that share a commitment to giving back to our community.
In this season of giving, we reached out to a couple of such businesses in Argyle and Flower Mound to learn more about them and their benevolence.
Meet BPS Technology and Stryker, businesses offering vastly different products, but each with the same commitment to quality, sustainability and giving back.
BPS Technology
Formerly known as BPS JET for BPS Just Energy Technology, the company moved into its new sparkling headquarters in Argyle on Nov. 16 after leasing space in Southlake for six years. It is located behind CVS Pharmacy at the intersection of FM 407 and HWY 377 and currently houses 35 employees with room for up to 85 (another seven are at its satellite facility in Midland).
BPS started in 2014 focused on mechanical applications to treat water without using chemicals within the oil and gas industry. It since has expanded to creating technology applications for other industries including agriculture, manufacturing, water treatment and life sciences.
“We utilize technology in the most responsible way possible,” said Vice President of Marketing Dawn McKenzie. “We’ve grown so much beyond energy the past few years, that we evolved the name to BPS Technology. But Just, meaning fair and right, is still very much part of our core, and that sustainability message is definitely a thread across all of the industries we serve.”
Why did Chief Executive Officer Bravis Brown and his partners choose to relocate to Argyle?
“In 2007 or so when I first moved here, I drove from Denton to Roanoke and saw very little here. It was a rural area, which reminded me where I grew up,” the Oklahoma native said. “At that point, my wife and I decided we’d love to live here and started looking for lots.
“From that point forward, we always had an interest in being here. As we got to know more about Argyle and Keep Argyle Rural, the interest of the community, the environmental concerns and trying to preserve what they had, we felt it aligned with who we are as a company.”
Well before the move, BPS started the process of being a great corporate citizen. It partnered with the Argyle Independent School District by donating $40,000 to create greenhouse space where students can learn first-hand about growing things. It also has supported the Argyle Education Foundation, which funds STEM teachers to make sure both the facilities and teachers are there.
“Our agriculture team is working to support the efforts of the STEM team at Argyle ISD to develop curriculum there,” Brown said. “As we grow products, we can demonstrate the impact the applications are having and like to share that with the community.”
This is on top of a small agricultural discovery grow chamber featured inside the new building.
“There are products we are developing, especially with our ag team, that will reduce fertilizer usage and products that will reduce the use of chemicals in crop protection,” McKenzie said. “Those are two big focal areas at the moment. And we have set up a hydroponic system at the greenhouse so we’re able really work hand in hand.”
BPS’ community reach has gone beyond the Argyle schools.
“We also have done some other events, like Argyle Arbor Day. We’re looking to be more engaged with the community by participating in the Lion’s Club here and the Metroport Chamber of Commerce to help support Argyle and make more of a name for the community,” Brown said.
“Bravis has worked closely with the Town of Argyle on the economic development council,” McKenzie said. In addition, the company and its entities have donated more than 40,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to North and West Texas communities, including more than 20,000 bottles alone to the United Way of Denton County.
Stryker
Anyone who has been to a hospital for surgery likely has seen intensive care and operating room equipment with the name Stryker on it. But how many knew at least some of that equipment was assembled in the Lakeside area of Flower Mound since 2003?
Stryker moved into its current building in 2017, and before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, about 575 employees worked there. Now most work from home but the company’s work continues.
It manufactures virtually everything featured in a typical operating room from surgical lights to tables to boom cranes to high tech computer monitoring systems. That “made to order” concept is what makes Stryker unique from its competitors with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound among its clients.
Styker was founded in 1941 by Homer Stryker, an orthopedic surgeon in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where the company still is headquartered. It has about 40,000 employees at 48 worldwide facilities and generates up to $14.9 billion in annual revenues. It has received 5,300 patents and counting.
The Flower Mound facility, which has earned the WELL Building Standard certification, features a regional distribution center that stores parts for Stryker. It normally houses personnel including engineers, designers, operations, purchasing, planning and customer service. There’s even an employee gym and lockers and a cafeteria.
With most employees not able to take advantage of these and other on-site amenities, Stryker has partnered with the Flower Mound Community Activity Center to secure discounted memberships for its staff.
Having been in the community for so long, Stryker has a long list of supporting charities and community involvement including:
- Book drives with Bluebonnet Elementary School
- Career Day Programs with Flower Mound High School and Heritage Middle School
- Employee Clothing Drives
- Canned Food Drive with the Lewisville Food Pantry
- Flower Mound Fire Department members judge barbecue cookoff
- Landscaping for Christian Community Action
- Habitat for Humanity through the Stryker Veterans Association
- Feed My Starving Children, dedicated to providing nutritious meals to children worldwide
- Birthday Party Project to help pay for homeless children’s birthday gifts
- The Mission Continues, a nonprofit organization that helps veterans continue their service by transforming communities
While Stryker’s employees continue doing what they need to do from home, they can’t wait to return to the Flower Mound campus to be able to connect with the community they have called home for nearly two decades.
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