Kellogg’s moving HQ to Chicago
Tuesday, Jun 21, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* You gotta wonder if Gov. Pritzker will also downplay this as just “office personnel.” /s…
Battle Creek-based Kellogg Co. plans to split itself into three separate companies, with the headquarters of the largest company in Chicago. […]
The cereal and plant-based businesses would remain headquartered in Battle Creek, the company said. The global snacks business would maintain campuses in Battle Creek and Chicago, with Chicago being its corporate headquarters.
Kellogg Chairman and CEO Steve Cahillane will remain chairman and CEO of Global Snacking Co. Names and management teams for the other new companies will be announced later, the company said. […]
Kellogg executives have made some recent high-profile home purchases in the Chicago area, including the $5.62 million purchase of a five-bedroom mansion by Cahillane in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. Chief Growth Officer Monica McGurk bought a house in suburban Winnetka for $2.05 million.
Anyway, your thoughts?
…Adding… Wondering what the departing Cat execs think of this…
President Biden is the “acting” president because he didn’t win legally; Texans should vote on seceding; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be repealed; any gun control is a rights violation: this is the world as seen by the Republican Party of Texas, according to its newly adopted party platform.
“We can’t compromise with Democrats who have a different and incompatible vision for our future,” Matt Rinaldi, the state GOP chairman, said, according to The Texas Newsroom. “We need to be a bold and unapologetic conservative party, ready to go on offense and win the fight for our country.”
The Republicans’ 2022 platform is outlined in a 40-page document that addresses state issues but also much broader priorities — such as calling for the U.S. to leave the United Nations. Delegates approved it over the weekend, at the party’s convention in Houston.
- Cornflakes - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 8:55 am:
You can’t go wrong with a bowl of Cornflake and skim milk.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 8:55 am:
The realtors “stuck” selling the CAT folks houses now have the Kellogg corporate folks to buy them?
Realtors win.
- Bruce( no not him) - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 8:59 am:
== Global Snacking Co.==
Just the name is a win. Wherever they locate.
- lake county democrat - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:01 am:
They’rrrrrrrrrre Great!
- Just Sayin - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:01 am:
==You gotta wonder if Gov. Pritzker will also downplay this as just “office personnel.”==
Or he might ask why Illinois got stuck with the snack division and not the cereal division (especially the Healthy Cereals part). Let Michigan keep the junk food and the sugar-laden kid cereals (Frosted Flakes and the ilk).
- Dirty Red - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:04 am:
Yesterday: CHICAGO WILL NEVER RECOVER!!!
Today: KELLOGG!!!!
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:06 am:
Can all the folks who went out of their way to explain how CAT leaving us a testament to “how bad” it is to do business in Illinois now we have Kellogg’s reorganizing and moving TO Illinois *after* reorganizing for a better corporate strategy.
I look forward to those same folks, easily seen if one pulls up that CAT post…
Thanks.
- Benjamin - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:11 am:
If there’s a common theme, it’s probably that corporate relocations are driven more by where the executives want to live than by any other factors.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:12 am:
Pretty much standard. Chicago metro always does well in corporate relocations. It was reported to be a population growth center in the 2020 census, before the revised numbers showed growth for Illinois.
Has anyone seen the Texas GOP platform? Anyone who wants to relocate there, go right on ahead.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:19 am:
J.B. should definitely be more reactive and hysterical every time a business relocates. He’s not a Republican Daddy figure so as far as media can tell that means nobody wants to do business in the state of Illinois.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:26 am:
It would be so easy and so good for the state if JB and the Democrats would finally stand up to the trial lawyers and other Democratic special interests and passed some reasonable and moderate pro business and economic development legislation so we could improve on our F ratings.
Maybe then we could attract some of the worker bees who actually drive economic growth instead of just the top executives. Pretty telling there was no announcement of increased headcount in Chicago by Kellogg.
Texas has now become the 9th largest economy in the world while our leaders fell asleep at the switch and rested on their laurels.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/07/13/top-states-for-business-illinois.html
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:26 am:
It isn’t that corporate headquarters are moving into or out of Chicago as much as it is that they are leaving and not relocating to smaller downstate communities.
CAT left Peoria, ADM left Decatur, State Farm is slowly letting people relocate from Bloomington-Normal.
Chicago is a world class city that will always be attractive to land high profile jobs. But it’s what’s happening downstate that is troubling. So for all the shouting about crime and Chicago that region is by far and away the healthiest economic region in the state.
- Gordon Willis - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:28 am:
As a skeptic and someone familiar with the snack business, it looks to me like Kellogg’s is preening to be acquired by Mondelez (formerly Kraft-Heinz snack division)….but what do I know. Kellogg bought Keebler in 2001 and sold it off in 2019…
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:32 am:
It’s just probably not worth drawing big conclusions from the churn of corporate HQ movement.
- Midwesterner - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:33 am:
In terms of numbers, neither Cat’s leaving or Kellogg Snacks arriving mean a whole lot. There is certainly a psychological, image and business climate impact. So, it’s good (OK, Grrrrrreatttt) that the Kellogg move is occurring so soon after Cat’s departure. And, of course, who wouldn’t want a tiger rather rather than a cat?
BTW, the snack company generates quadruple the revenue and profitability of the cereal company and there are going to be only a few additional employees as snacks already has a management group ensconced here.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:39 am:
===Maybe then we could attract some of the worker bees who actually drive economic growth instead of just the top executives. Pretty telling there was no announcement of increased headcount in Chicago by Kellogg.===
1) How many “worker bee” CAT jobs left with corporate.
2) Let’s visit - Lucky Pierre’s own words to CAT moving;
===- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Jun 15, 22 @ 12:13 pm
JB is trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes once again.
Instead of working to fix our shortcomings, he dismisses those who point out the obvious fact that Illinois is not business friendly as carnival barkers
Working to fix our business environment is not “trashing our state” it is actually rebuilding it
He could also be friendlier to the circus and carnival community===
How do you explain Kellogg’s moving, not one change was made since you wrote your word salad.
- Vote Quimby - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:49 am:
==But it’s what’s happening downstate that is troubling.==
I agree with Cool Papa Bell in that this is more large companies relocating from smaller towns (where they generally were started) to larger cities… where people want to be. The future is bleak for rural America IMO
- Chris in ChiTown - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:52 am:
I guess if you visit Texas, don’t visit an area that has folks who think that their state could leave the US [the State of Texas receives Federal money for several programs, so secession is not feasible] & that folks who are lesbian or gay chose an abnormal lifestyle [because people who are lesbian or gay never chose who they are, as it’s biological]. The Republican Party in Texas turned into an extremist, far right, and white supremacist group even as the United States & the State of Texas has growing diversity.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:54 am:
==It would be so easy and so good for the state if JB and the Democrats would finally stand up to the trial lawyers==
The “Trial Lawyers” are primarily a group of plaintiff side civil attorneys. They represent people who want to sue their bosses or other big businesses. If you think the Dems should stiff arm them, you’re saying you think people should have less rights to sue when they’ve been wronged. So my response remains:
You go first.
It would also be cool if you could name one specific anti-trial lawyer reform you want to see. I won’t hold my breath.
==Maybe then we could attract some of the worker bees==
Your worker bees won’t be attracted by limited rights to sue their bosses when they’re wronged.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:54 am:
well, don’t know about Pritzker, but expect to see Lori L with a cereal bowl urging us, let them eat flakes.
- Moe Berg - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:56 am:
Crain’s editorial, yesterday:
“Caterpillar just sent a major message. Are elected officials listening?”
I look forward to reading tomorrow’s “Kellog just sent a major message” walking it back.
JK, of course. A defense contractor moves closer to the seat of federal government makes sense.
CAT moving to a state that has lost its political mind and is embracing neo-fascist policies, has an unstable electricity grid, is running out of water and being ravaged by heat waves, and celebrates extremist gun policies (in the wake of a massacre of school children) for Crain’s is somehow an indictment of Illinois, rather than an indictment of CAT’s executives and corporate board.
The main reason for CAT’s move is the zero percent income tax rate for its corporate execs.
- Jocko - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 9:57 am:
==all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God given rights==
Provided you don’t read the first four words of the amendment or anything written in the new testament.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:06 am:
Rest assured you can stop holding your breath
Illinois ranks 50th in the fairness and reasonableness of the State’s liability systems.
We rank 50th in the following sub categories
enforcing meaningful venue requirements
Overall treatment of tort and contract litigation
Proportional discovery
Trial judges competence
Quality of Appellate review
Interesting Delaware, home of President Joe Biden ranks #1
https://instituteforlegalreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2019_Harris_Poll_State_Lawsuit_Climate_Ranking_the_States.pdf
- Dave Dahl - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:07 am:
== https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMc9W2IQ7PM ==
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:08 am:
Guess there was shortage of $5 million houses in Battle Creek.
Now will Pence rush to MI to lament the loss of Kellogg
- btowntruthfromforgottonia - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:09 am:
“Yesterday: CHICAGO WILL NEVER RECOVER!!!
Today: KELLOGG!!!!”
So far in Forgottonia the people who were roasting the Governor over the Caterpillar move are dead silent over Kelloggs.
- Vote Quimby - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:12 am:
==Provided you don’t read the first four words of the amendment==
Yes. This. More of this.
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:17 am:
Much needed win for Illinois and Chicago - Pritzker and the city really need to pour money into making Ilinois the Silicon Valley of food.
- 4 percent - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:19 am:
Kellogg opened their Chicago office in 2017 and made an announcement. Many execs moved here at the time. While this is good news, it’s really not a change.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:20 am:
=== it’s really not a change===
Tell that to Michigan
- Just Sayin - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:22 am:
==Now will Pence rush to MI to lament the loss of Kellogg==
Or try to talk the rest of Kelloggs’ operations into moving 50 miles south–into Indiana.
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:31 am:
1. 80% of lawsuits against corporations don’t come from trial lawyers, they come from other businesses.
2. Caterpillar moving to Texas had nothing to do with trial lawyers. CAT has a great safety record.
3. Boeing is going to get sued wherever they are located until their planes stop falling out of the sky.
4. Allowing phony rankings from lobby groups to dictate policy is crazy. We have so much actual data telling us what is going on.
5. We passed worker’s comp reform. Kwame Raoul, a corporate defense lawyer, sponsored the Bill.
- Yeah Yeah - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:35 am:
Hopefully, the Texas example will encourage downstate IL to join the movement. The party of no deserves it’s own utopia.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:52 am:
==Rest assured you can stop holding your breath==
Well, I said I wasn’t going to hold my breath…and you proved why.
I asked for a specific reform you supported.
You didn’t name one.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:52 am:
More on the downstate issue - Champaign has a major bank and they are running into substantial problems in landing C-Suite talent to come there to work. Even if they are paying $300k many of those folks don’t want to live in that community or that far away from a major metro area. The bank might have to relocate just to keep it sustainable.
I’m not sure what anyone can do about it.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:56 am:
===Rest assured you can stop holding your breath===
Indeed, it’s the angry in-law uncle with the grievances..,
… not a single reform.
Same ole…
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 10:58 am:
Where are all the doomsayers who were bent on making CAT moving the “canary in the coal mine”
Kellogg’s moving here… such loud silence?
- Steve - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:00 am:
Good news is good news. I’m happy Kellogg is coming to Chicago. Obviously , Kellogg is impressed with the workforce in Illinois.
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:01 am:
Could not stop thinking about CAT employees when reading about that crazy Texas GOP platform.
The CEO may be willing to look the other way when their gay, female, and minority employees get mistreated in their new corporate home, but I would think a Texas secession referendum could create some headaches.
Would the U.S. need to slap tariffs on machines made in East Peoria?
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:08 am:
@Cool Papa Bell - I call balderdash on the notion that a Champaign bank can’t find anyone to work there for $300,000.
If the execs aren’t finding people to come their hiring process/criteria is messed up.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:11 am:
==Wondering what the departing Cat execs think of this…==
They probably think, “My taxes will stay low and I’ll never have to worry about a union or anything else that will make me pay my workers more, so whatever.”
And such is the folly of giving their thoughts much influence over public policy.
- sour patch kid - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:14 am:
@Gordon Willis - agree; Mondelez HQ is in Chicago so it makes sense to put your snack company HQ in a location where it will be easier to be bought or poach talent from your competitor.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:38 am:
Not a single reform?
I just listed 5
The most important could be ending the practice of the Cook County Democratic Party slating judges so we have an independent judiciary not one beholden to the interests of the party and its powerful members
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-politics/nbc-5-exclusive-judge-who-handled-smollett-case-doesnt-receive-backing-of-cook-county-dems-executive-committee/2338262/?amp
- ChicagoVinny - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:44 am:
I think the biggest factor in these corporate moves is where the CEO wants to live. The CEO bought a mansion in Lincoln Park in 2018.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 11:52 am:
@hisgirl - The competition is pretty stiff at the top of the food chain for those jobs. And that bank didn’t get to be a $10 billion plus bank by messing up the hiring process.
Ask rural and downstate hospital groups how easy it is to recruit and keep talented physicians.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 12:14 pm:
The Kellogg move is nice for Illinois. It is nice when any company relocates any part of their business here and not so nice when they leave. Corporate America is becoming mobile in ways that most would never have imagined.
=It would be so easy and so good for the state if JB and the Democrats would finally stand up to the trial lawyers=
For a right winger you seem to be very anti-trial lawyer which is surprising given the radical change in the GOP and their firm, dare I say loving, embrace of litigation. I doubt anyone has ever used litigation so reflexively as the trump clan.
Same with ilgop candidates Bailey and DeVore. So LP is either out of step with the right or he is being hypocritical. But it is one of the two.
=and other Democratic special interests=
Labor isn’t a special interest for the democrats, they are a key pillar of their base even if some have been peeled away by culture war issues.
=and passed some reasonable and moderate pro business and economic development legislation so we could improve on our F ratings.=
Ratings from whom? “Pro-business” groups? First you want “worker bees” then you want theri wages and right stripped away. Are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable in Texas or other wannabe banana republic?
=their hiring process/criteria is messed up.=
Not really. The pool of people that want to move to rural communities is drying up. More and more these communities rail against taxes and then let their communities decline. When you don’t have “things” and you don’t invest in your community nobody wants to live there. CAT didn’t move to Paris, Texas they are moving to Irving part of a metro area with almost 7,000,000 people. Not a cheap area to move to with the exception of the personal income tax.
That is what is hurting rural Illinois and America.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 12:48 pm:
@JS - Spot on. Look at county growth rates in Texas. Their rural counties and midsized ones with towns like Amarillo are shirking.
Its an urban/rural divide impact seen everywhere.
I work with a lot of farmers (high earners if you ignore all the woe is me stuff).
You know where they live? Many of the young ones with kids live in a neighborhood in the nicest and largest towns that are next to most of their land.
They don’t live “on the farm” anymore. They want what JS talks about; better schools and nicer things.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 1:20 pm:
=I work with a lot of farmers (high earners if you ignore all the woe is me stuff).+
I have had farmers on my school boards my entire career. I have been lucky to have some really great people who supported good schools. I have yet to meet a poor farmer and most do very very well. And, as you stated many live in town these days. Not all of them do, the ones living in the country typically have the largest homes in my experience though.
- MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 1:28 pm:
“Not a single reform? I just listed 5″
No you didn’t.
You listed five lobbyist grievances.
“We don’t like X” isn’t a reform proposal, it’s just corporate bellyaching.
– MrJM
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 1:34 pm:
===The most important could be ending the practice of the Cook County Democratic Party slating judges===
Now you want to interfere in the election type processes that a party can not engage in a slating?
What’s next, making it harder to actually vote?
- NorthsideNoMore - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 4:21 pm:
How many manufacturing jobs is Tony the Tiger brining to Illinois…CATS departure steadily decimated some Illinois communities. Cheap rent in the loop will bring in more of this for a few years. Buying a few High end homes Meh I’m non plussed. The same folks in those $2 plus mill houses fly on the corporate lear so I guess the Palwaukee or DuPage APs get a little pop. Cheez Its for all.
- Fivegreenleaves - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 5:49 pm:
===Maybe then we could attract some of the worker bees who actually drive economic growth instead of just the top executives.===
Ever heard of Lion Electric or Rivian? They have two things in common. They both operate facilities that opened on JB Pritzker’s watch, and they both run new facilities, in Illinois, that employ over 1,000 people. Ferrero just announced it was expanding in Bloomington, eventually adding 200 jobs. While you focus on Kellogg’s splitting and moving it’s HQ from Michigan to Illinois, don’t forget about the assembly plants that are opening in Illinois and creating new jobs. Illinois has boomed economically under Gov. Pritzker.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 6:37 pm:
== I just listed 5==
…what?
Has your delusion reached such a point that you don’t know what your saying, or that you assume I can’t scroll up? Because I can read exactly what you said. It was this:
== Rest assured you can stop holding your breath
Illinois ranks 50th in the fairness and reasonableness of the State’s liability systems.
We rank 50th in the following sub categories
enforcing meaningful venue requirements
Overall treatment of tort and contract litigation
Proportional discovery
Trial judges competence
Quality of Appellate review
Interesting Delaware, home of President Joe Biden ranks #1==
Now that’s a fine list of things Illinois can do better at, but it’s not a reform. You’ve listed 0 reforms you support. And now you’ve lied about how it was 5.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jun 21, 22 @ 6:39 pm:
You’re just comically bad at numbers, LP. “Zero is five”, “Rick Caruso is leading if you don’t count half a million votes”.
Expect to be reminded of these greatest hits every time you talk down to anyone on here.
So, basically, every time you post.
- Arsenal - Wednesday, Jun 22, 22 @ 8:36 am:
==What’s next, making it harder to actually vote? ==
Just as an aside, this proposal alone makes it harder to vote- at least to vote very thoughtfully. Party affiliation is a great shorthand for a candidate’s platform. 90% of Democrats agree with each other on 90% of the issues,and 90% of Republicans agree with each other on 90% of the issues (give or take the odd “Should we overthrow the government for Donald Trump?” question). If you know which party a candidate sides with, you know a *ton* about that candidate. More candidates, not fewer, should run with party affiliation.