Mars Wrigley Confectionery will base its new U.S. headquarters at two sites in New Jersey, and not Chicago, the company announced Tuesday.
Mars Wrigley will keep its global headquarters in Chicago, but the U.S. headquarters decision likely means the company will shift more than 200 jobs from Chicago to a new office in Newark and existing offices in Hackettstown, N.J., by July 2020. The candy company, a unit of privately held Mars, was considering both Illinois and New Jersey for its U.S. headquarters.
Chicago has attracted numerous corporate headquarters in the past few years, particularly in the food industry, drawing companies like Conagra Brands; Kraft Heinz, which is co-headquartered in Pittsburgh; and as of September, the North American headquarters of Mars Food, a smaller business unit of Mars. Last month, Chicago officials believed they were still in the hunt for the Mars Wrigley Confectionery U.S. headquarters, even after New Jersey officials approved more than $30 million in tax credits.
On Tuesday, city officials tried to focus the attention on what’s here instead of what’s departing, noting Mars Wrigley’s global headquarters and Mars Food’s North American offices are relatively new additions to Chicago.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with the company, across its many business lines, to continue to increase its presence in Chicago,” Grant Klinzman, spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said in an email.
It’s unclear how much Illinois offered Mars Wrigley in state tax credits to locate its U.S. headquarters in Chicago. Unlike New Jersey, Illinois doesn’t make that information available until tax credit agreements are finalized. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Mars Wrigley had considered a 92,300-square-foot office in Chicago for its U.S. headquarters, according to a New Jersey Economic Development Authority board document from last month summarizing the project. If it had chosen Chicago, the company would have moved 370 jobs from New Jersey to Chicago, according to the document.
Instead, the company plans to move 113 Chicago jobs to the new office in Newark and another 92 Chicago jobs to Hackettstown, where the company is planning upgrades to existing facilities, according to the plan outlined in the board document. A spokeswoman for Mars Wrigley Confectionery didn’t respond to a request for confirmation on those numbers Tuesday.
Even with the loss, Mars will continue to have a sizable workforce in Illinois. Mars currently has more than 2,400 employees and five factories in the state, as well as five Chicago offices.
Mars, headquartered in McLean, Va., announced last year that it would combine its chocolate business, known for brands like Snickers, M&M and Twix, with its Wrigley candy and gum business, thus forming Mars Wrigley Confectionery.
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