Kraft Heinz to move Oscar Mayer HQ to Chicago.
CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel is crediting Chicago’s workforce and its transportation networks for the decision by Kraft Heinz to move Oscar Mayer’s headquarters to the city. MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Those who benefited from Oscar Mayer’s generosity in Madison say the loss of a major corporate benefactor will be quite a blow to the community.Kraft Heinz announced Wednesday that it will move Oscar Mayer and the company’s U.S. meats business from Madison, Wis., to Chicago — a move that will add 250 jobs to Chicago’s Aon Center.The other factories that are closing are in Fullerton and San Leandro, Calif; Federalsburg, Md.; Campbell, New York; Lehigh Valley, Penn.; and Madison, Wis.
The announcement came as the newly-merged company announced it will close seven plants in the U.S. and Canada over the next two years and eliminate 2,600 jobs. Production from these factories will move to facilities across North America, according to Michael Mullen, SVP of corporate and government affairs, in a statement. State Senator Fred Risser and state Representative Chris Taylor, Madison Democrats whose districts include the plant, call the announcement “gut wrenching.” Risser and Taylor say they already have spoken to Madison Mayor Paul Soglin’s office and Gov. United Way president Renee Moe tells the State Journal (http://bit.ly/1Q6P9A1 ) Oscar Mayer also provides volunteers and in-kind services for countless other events. The headquarters will shift from Madison to Chicago; the other plants slated for closure include facilities in Fullerton, California; San Leandro, California; Federalsburg, Maryland; St.
Oscar Mayer is a division of Kraft Heinz Co., a global food conglomerate that is the third-largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world. Kraft Heinz has announced it plans to shift production from its current Davenport plant to a proposed state-of-the-art facility in the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center near I-80 and Northwest Boulevard.
The company, formed from the merger of Kraft and Heinz earlier this year and co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh, also said its cheese production will be moved away from Champaign, Ill. Its parent company, Kraft Heinz Food Co., will shut down the Madison headquarters and eliminate hundreds of jobs at a company that has been a part of the community’s fabric since 1919. The company has laid off about 5,100 employees, or over 10 percent of the company’s global workforce, since the merger closed in July. “We continue to co-produce for Heinz”, said Pradeep Sood, director and shareholder of Highbury Canco, a privately held firm controlled by Toronto investors. The state and company are also committing to each invest at least $20 million to support and modernize Kraft Heinz’s upstate operations, the release said.
Since then Oscar Mayer has become known for its cold cuts, its “My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R” jingle and its Wienermobiles, 27-foot-long vehicles shaped like hot dogs that travel the nation promoting the company. Kraft Heinz brands include Capri Sun, Classico, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Lunchables, Maxwell House, Ore-Ida, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Planters, Plasmon, Quero, Weight Watchers Smart Ones and Velveeta. “A lot of kids want to stay here and have a good option for their future, not to be just working in an unskilled labor position for their careers”, she said. The deal closed in early July and two weeks later, Kraft Heinz announced it would relocate its Northfield headquarters to Aon Center in early 2016, occupying 170,000 square feet over five floors in the city’s third-tallest building. Fred Risser, an 88-year-old Madison Democrat, spent a summer working there during World War II, when he was 17. “It’s an institution for the city of Madison,” Risser said at the mayor’s news conference. “It’s been around longer than I have.
It’s like a death in the family.” Soglin told reporters he had no idea the closing was coming until a corporate official visited his office Tuesday evening to break the news. But he said the economic impact would be “very significant.” “These men and women have dedicated their lives to this company, and they and their families are of the utmost concern to me,” Soglin said. “They are the heart and soul of the Northside.” Asked for comment on the closure, Gov.
Pat Schramm, chief executive of Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin, said her agency would work to subsidize retraining for employees. Doug Leikness, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538, which represents Oscar Mayer production workers, said he was upset that he found out about the closure Wednesday afternoon from reporters rather than company officials.