Sealed Air Corp. (NYSE:SEE) will move its global headquarters to Charlotte, bringing more than 1,262 jobs here, primarily from several Northern cities.
It’s the largest Fortune 500 corporate headquarters relocation in the Queen City’s history. Other headquarters recruitments may have brought more jobs to the city but did not involve Fortune 500, U.S.-based companies, says Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan.
The jobs will carry an average salary of almost $120,000, Sealed Air says.
The headquarters will move from Elmwood Park, N.J., in the New York City area. Jobs also will relocate from New Jersey, Connecticut and Wisconsin, as well as from Duncan and Greenville, S.C. Greenville was Sealed Air's other option as a new headquarters location.
The company, a manufacturer with 25,000 employees, makes packaging products and "hygiene solutions." One of its most recognizable brands is Bubble Wrap. It also makes cleaning chemicals and markets floor-care machines.
The company reported $7.7 billion in revenue in fiscal 2013.
N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory announced the relocation at a Charlotte Chamber news conference this morning.
“North Carolina’s business-friendly climate continues to attract corporate headquarters to the Charlotte region,” he said. “We welcome Sealed Air’s senior executive team, division and line managers and staff to the Queen City, where they will find big city opportunity with a great quality of life.”
In North Carolina, the company has production operations in Caldwell and Richmond counties, as well as a range of sales offices, N.C. Secretary of Commerce Sharon Decker notes.
“We are confident Charlotte will provide a great environment for us to operate and grow our business moving forward,” Sealed Air CEO Jerome Peribere says. “This move will contribute to a stronger, one-company culture that will enable greater collaboration, efficiencies and better use of our investments in people and new technologies.”
Peribere answered reporters' questions following the press conference, touching on what the company found attractive about Charlotte and its timeline for the relocation, among other topics.
State incentives approved this morning include a JDIG grant totaling $36 million over 12 years and a One N.C. grant of $2.5 million. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County also contributed to the incentives package, although it's unclear how much.
Sealed Air is looking in southwest Charlotte for what Peribere says will be a multi-building "campus" with room for 1,300 employees. Sealed Air will lease space initially, but the location of that office space wasn't disclosed.
Chamber recruiter Kati Hynes, who has brought the city Chiquita Brands International Inc. (NYSE:CQB) and MetLife Inc. (NYSE:MET), was the lead economic-development person on the Sealed Air deal.
It's the second jobs announcement in Charlotte in as many days. On Tuesday, Spectra Group Inc. said it will establish a 250-employee operation here, choosing Charlotte over Austin, Texas, and Florida's Tampa Bay area.
Triangle Business Journal staff writer Amanda Jones Hoyle contributed to this report.
