Dive Brief:
- The Kraft Heinz Co. announced it would be relocating its Chicago-area headquarters from the suburbs to the city's center. Kraft has been at its headquarters location about 20 miles outside of Chicago since 1990.
- The company did not make any announcement as to how the move might affect the approximately 2,000 employees working at the headquarters, though this could signal more corporate layoffs in addition to employees on the factory floor — particularly when taking into account the much smaller office space Kraft Heinz is moving into, from 700,000 square feet to 170,000 square feet in Chicago's city center.
- Heinz's long-time headquarters in Pittsburgh will remain untouched, at least for now.
Dive Insight:
This is the latest shakeup for Kraft Heinz since Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz Co. officially merged earlier this month. Other changes so far have included several upper management from Kraft getting the boot.
Next up, industry experts believe, are factory closures, downsizing, and significant job cuts as were seen when 3G first took over Heinz.
Chicago has been a hotbed of activity for the food industry as of the past few months, for better or for worse. Mondelez International announced in May it would slash jobs from its Chicago plant. Morton Salt announced in June that it too would be moving its headquarters to downtown Chicago.