Dematic

[ctpgr34]

This would be a blow-

http://fox17online.com/2016/01/06/developing-union-members-told-grand-rapids-plant-may-be-closing/

[MJLO]

Their manufacturing would move, their brain trust would remain.

[GRDadof3]

6 hours ago, ctpgr34 said:

This would be a blow-

http://fox17online.com/2016/01/06/developing-union-members-told-grand-rapids-plant-may-be-closing/

Only 300 production workers would move, the 700 or so white collar would remain. Sounds like it's just a ploy though to get the union to negotiate wage reductions.

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/01/corporate_greed_behind_dematic.html?ath=1a90132b90933db8002100e5723c045a#cmpid=nsltr_strybutton

[arcturus]

More jobs moving to Mexico, this time from Indianapolis.

http://www.indystar.com/story/money/2016/02/10/carrier-move-indy-unit-mexico-eliminate-1400-jobs/80181804/

Monterrey appears to be the new boom town.

[MJLO]

3 hours ago, arcturus said:

More jobs moving to Mexico, this time from Indianapolis.

http://www.indystar.com/story/money/2016/02/10/carrier-move-indy-unit-mexico-eliminate-1400-jobs/80181804/

Monterrey appears to be the new boom town.

The area around Monterrey, and specifically Saltillo and Ramos on the other side of the mountain have been automotive/manufacturing hotbeds since NAFTA really.

[Veloise]

On 2/13/2016 at 2:10 PM, temporary.name said:

Dematic has facilities in Germany and Italy. Germany has 29 mandatory PAID days off a year. Italy has 32 mandatory PAID days off a year. The United States has ZERO mandatory paid days off a year. Germany also has paid maternity and paternity leave for parents. The US has zero. Yet, somehow, operations in those countries can be profitable but we're fed the same corporate BS that supposedly "the US is too hard to make money in." Get real. 

 

Dematic also operates in a bunch of other countries with very nice employee benefits that are state mandated.

Sources:

- https://www.dematic.com/en-us/about-us/about-dematic/worldwide-locations

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_employment_leave_by_country

 

Anybody who swallows this provably false rhetoric has my sympathies. 

Sounds like someone else spent the opening day of Where to Invade Next in the theater. Good film.

[GRDadof3]

On 2/13/2016 at 2:10 PM, temporary.name said:

Dematic has facilities in Germany and Italy. Germany has 29 mandatory PAID days off a year. Italy has 32 mandatory PAID days off a year. The United States has ZERO mandatory paid days off a year. Germany also has paid maternity and paternity leave for parents. The US has zero. Yet, somehow, operations in those countries can be profitable but we're fed the same corporate BS that supposedly "the US is too hard to make money in." Get real. 

 

Dematic also operates in a bunch of other countries with very nice employee benefits that are state mandated.

Sources:

- https://www.dematic.com/en-us/about-us/about-dematic/worldwide-locations

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_employment_leave_by_country

 

Anybody who swallows this provably false rhetoric has my sympathies. 

 

Anyone know how Dematic's stock price has been doing lately? A lot of times offshoring/Mexico-izing jobs and layoffs are used to inflate a company's stock value. It was a really big deal back in the 80's and 90's, when every week another company would announced massive layoffs and their stocks would go up. 

[MJLO]

Are they publicly traded?  I can't tell.

[EastCoaster93]

Dematic has chosen a permanent “Global Headquarters” in Atlanta.  Grand Rapids is still listed as their North American Headquarters, but it seems easy to speculate (from the article) that the company might be transferring at least some of their white collar workforce to Atlanta from GR.  I don’t have any concrete evidence that this is the case, but I felt that it at least warrants a post about it.  Does anyone else have insight about this?

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2019/04/10/supply-chain-company-shifting-global-hq-to-midtown.html

 

[Raildude's dad]

Son-in-law is a controls engineer here in GR. They are so tight on space they had his whole group switch to work from home. His "office" there was a cubicle in the hallway.

[GRLaker]

I would imagine that they aren't going to maintain two headquarters' for the white collar workforce. Unfortunate that we weren't able to have a hometown company build a new headquarters on its own turf. We instead lost out to a city across the country and in doing so raise the question of why it is the city of Grand Rapids (not the region) can't seem to secure corporate headquarters while other medium to large cities don't seem to have an issue doing so. That is a nice looking building that would have looked great downtown. 

[BLUESCRUBS]

23 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

I would imagine that they aren't going to maintain two headquarters' for the white collar workforce. Unfortunate that we weren't able to have a hometown company build a new headquarters on its own turf. We instead lost out to a city across the country and in doing so raise the question of why it is the city of Grand Rapids (not the region) can't seem to secure corporate headquarters while other medium to large cities don't seem to have an issue doing so. That is a nice looking building that would have looked great downtown. 

If other cities are able to keep or gain these types of headquarters, what do people think are the biggest obstacles here in the Grand Rapids MSA?? Taxes, weather, culture, infrastructure? 

[MJLO]

42 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

I would imagine that they aren't going to maintain two headquarters' for the white collar workforce. Unfortunate that we weren't able to have a hometown company build a new headquarters on its own turf. We instead lost out to a city across the country and in doing so raise the question of why it is the city of Grand Rapids (not the region) can't seem to secure corporate headquarters while other medium to large cities don't seem to have an issue doing so. That is a nice looking building that would have looked great downtown. 

What other cities in Grand Rapids peer range (metro's 1million - 1.5 million) are out performing GR in this regard?    From what I can tell we are in pretty good company and performing better than average compared to similar sized metro's.  Not a lot  of companies are making big moves to mid sized metro's in general. Atlanta is a heavy hitter on the nat'l stage and has been snyping headquarters from other areas for 40 years.  It's never good to lose a headquarters, Dematic isn't that big of a player, they have been slowly transitining out of the area for years.   They  won't be a big loss overall.   

I definitely agree that the region should be aggressive at trying to land corporate relocation's.  If a bigger fish is ever landed it will most likely be a company in a smaller area looking for a better talent market, and more attractive area to recruit to.  Unlikely we would ever snag a company from a bigger region unless it's expensive and tax unfriendly.

[GRLaker]

1 minute ago, MJLO said:

What other cities in Grand Rapids peer range (metro's 1million - 1.5 million) are out performing GR in this regard?    From what I can tell we are in pretty good company and performing better than average compared to similar sized metro's.  Not a lot  of companies are making big moves to mid sized metro's in general. Atlanta is a heavy hitter on the nat'l stage and has been snyping headquarters from other areas for 40 years.  It's never good to lose a headquarters, Dematic isn't that big of a player and won't be a big loss overall. 

To be clear, I was referring to the city itself - not the metro area. We have consistently pointed out on here that the city is lacking a large company headquarters in its downtown while the suburbs do quite well in that regard. This would have been a great opportunity to have a company move down the street into a new building in or near downtown to provide for the needed space and maintain their presence here.

[MJLO]

6 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

To be clear, I was referring to the city itself - not the metro area. We have consistently pointed out on here that the city is lacking a large company headquarters in its downtown while the suburbs do quite well in that regard. This would have been a great opportunity to have a company move down the street into a new building in or near downtown to provide for the needed space and maintain their presence here.

Fair enough.  What cities similar in size to GR  are doing better?   I think Dematic already sits within GR's city limits so it's a loss to the city.   In my opinion if the city is going to pull a corporate headquarters downtown there are some prohibitive infrastructure concerns to work through.  I think parking remains the largest obstacle, land value and construction I would also guess are prohibitive.  In places like Chicago it's nothing for a $200 million development to include office space and parking.  Here it's game changer and current market conditions don't support it.   I think the best bet remains the organic growth from the research and start ups along the medical mile.  These are still going to be the best long term answer to the cities growth and future stability. 

[GRDadof3]

16 hours ago, EastCoaster93 said:

Dematic has chosen a permanent “Global Headquarters” in Atlanta.  Grand Rapids is still listed as their North American Headquarters, but it seems easy to speculate (from the article) that the company might be transferring at least some of their white collar workforce to Atlanta from GR.  I don’t have any concrete evidence that this is the case, but I felt that it at least warrants a post about it.  Does anyone else have insight about this?

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2019/04/10/supply-chain-company-shifting-global-hq-to-midtown.html

 

I'll bet that if they offer transfers to their white-collar people, not a lot of people will take the offer.