Kraft Heinz is gearing up to move its homestead. But while the Wall Street Journal reports that the distance doesn’t entail a big move, the square-footage does.
According to WSJ Reporter Annie Gasparro, the company is forgoing its 700,000 square-foot offices in Northfield, IL., where it moved back in 1990, for a 170,000 square-foot, five-story open layout space of offices in the busier hub of downtown Chicago.
Click here to read Annie Gasparro's full story.
“Kraft Heinz didn’t say how the move would affect the roughly 2,000 employees now working at its 700,000 square-foot offices in Northfield, IL, about 20 miles outside the city,” Gasparro wrote.
Kraft Heinz Spokesman Michael Mullen said in a statement, according to the report, that the move will firmly establish the company’s dynamic new culture, based on “meritocracy, speed, efficiency and collaboration.”
Kraft already opened a downtown office in the spring of last year as a satellite, which Mullen stated would now be subleased. Originally the company commented that the location would be more convenient for about a third of its employees that lived in or near the downtown area, as well as make meetings easier. The Northfield corporate real estate was already sold in early 2013 when the company split with now Mondelez International Inc.
While the company has reportedly called the suburbs of Chicago home for more than two decades, it’s a return to Kraft’s original roots to move back to the main streets. Downtown Chicago is where founder J.L. Kraft first began selling cheese to local merchants in 1903, according to the WSJ.
As we previously reported, Kraft and Heinz recently shook hands on a merger agreement, but decided that each would retain its respective headquarters. The original Heinz location will still reportedly remain in place in Pittsburgh, PA, while the move for the Heinz headquarters is expected to take place early next year.