Find Matt on Facebook (facebook.com/mattkempnercolumnist) and Twitter (@MattKempner) or email him at mkempner@ajc.com.
Why is Newell Brands, which sells stuff that’s in virtually every American home, moving its headquarters from metro Atlanta to New Jersey?
(That's right: from Atlanta to New Jersey.)
The company gives official reasons.
None of which are that its CEO already lives in New Jersey, fewer than 25 miles from the new HQ in Hoboken on the Hudson River overlooking Manhattan.
Nobody likes a long commute.
Which is what Newell CEO Michael Polk has had when he visited the company’s base in the Sandy Springs area, 881 miles from his suburban N.J. home. (Tax records indicate he also owns a condo in Buckhead.)
Only a "handful" of top execs will leave with the move, my colleagues Michael Kanell and Leon Stafford report. About 1,000 other employees will stay behind and a spokesperson emailed that "we remain committed to our operations in Atlanta."
That’s good.
But we've slipped from "headquarters" to "hub" in the vast world of Newell, which until recently was known as Newell Rubbermaid. The company has about $16 billion in sales from a soup-to-nuts collection of brands including Sharpie, Graco car seats, Elmer's glue, Coleman products, Calphalon pots, Yankee Candle, Mr. Coffee, Rubbermaid kitchen stuff and more.
We don’t like losing corporate headquarters in metro Atlanta. It doesn’t fit our story line.
And it has to have some local employees worried about the long-term viability of their jobs. (They have the same concern at Turner Broadcasting, which now has its CEO in NYC, though Turner retains a substantial local presence and is considering renovations at CNN Center and the company's Techwood campus.
Newell’s move inevitably stirs the pot of self-doubt in metro Atlanta.
Are we not good enough? Do we not have enough of the talent that companies want? Is our horrendous traffic frustrating employers?
Newell said in a press release that the New Jersey location will “enable us to continue expanding our global e-Commerce and Design teams” and that the “new location will unlock tremendous access to talent in these areas as we build a new future together.”
Does that imply Newell executives didn’t think they could “unlock” enough talent in Georgia?
A spokesperson emailed that the new space will give the e-commerce team “adequate space to expand our current capabilities.” Newell recently reduced the amount of office space it has in metro Atlanta.
I asked to talk to Polk, the CEO. It didn’t happen.
Clarity would be appreciated.
We’ve given away a lot to convince companies to bring jobs to Georgia and then stay put. We offer tax giveaways and other government incentives.
Newell, which shifted its base from Illinois to Georgia just 13 years ago, got at least $650,000 in grants from Georgia and qualified for more than $11 million in other state and local incentives. The company ultimately far exceeded its jobs commitments for the grants, my colleague Scott Trubey reported earlier.
Of course, you live sword; you die by the sword. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority is ponying up $27 million in tax goodies for Newell, which reportedly is shifting hundreds of jobs from New York to the Hoboken, N.J. site.
Money. A chance to “unlock” talent. And a shorter commute for the CEO. I guess somebody is getting a good deal.
About the Author
