The board of Atlanta’s economic development agency on Thursday approved local incentives to entice two companies to relocate their headquarters to the city.
The Invest Atlanta board approved $1.5 million in local incentives for payment processor Worldpay US and $50,000 for the holding company that controls the Serta and Simmons mattress brands. The benefits also require approval of the Atlanta City Council.
Sandy Springs-based Worldpay US currently has more than 600 workers in the region, but the city officials said it plans to expand to more than 1,200 employees as part of its expansion plans. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the Worldpay negotiations on Monday
Earlier this year, Worldpay US CEO Tony Catalfano told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he had planned to put an important innovation arm of the company in Silicon Valley because of its mass of technology workers. But he said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and others in the metro business community convinced him the city offered a robust tech community, too.
He said then that he hoped to locate operations within the city of Atlanta, including possibly shifting the entire company as it grew.
Worldpay US is the American subsidiary of London-based Worldpay. The overarching company processed 5.7 billion credit and debit transactions in 2013 on behalf of retailers and other merchants, making it the sixth-largest such processor by volume in the world, according to data from The Nilson Report, an industry publication.
Serta Simmons Bedding LLC plans to relocate to an office tower in Buckhead and create or relocate 110 jobs.
The Simmons brand is currently based in metro Atlanta, and its operations will not be affected. The Serta brand will remain located in metro Chicago.
Serta is known for its Perfect Sleeper and iComfort models, while Simmons is best known for its Beautyrest line.
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