Company moves headquarters out of state, will keep production here
A company JobsOhio helped get a tax credit to create jobs in this state announced today it is moving its headquarters from Ohio to suburban Chicago.
Rittal Corp., a German company making cabinets for IT equipment, is moving its executives, sales leadership, marketing and product management stafffrom Urbana, Ohio, near Springfield, to Schaumburg, Ill.
But a company spokesman said no one in Ohio will lose his or her job. The company will keep and grow its production operation in Ohio, as well as most of its approximately 600-person workforce.
The company is choosing to add 40 jobs in suburban Chicago, about 10 of which are transfers from Urbana.
“We are still very much committed to Ohio,” said Jeff Lawrence, a company spokesman. “This is 100 percent a growth move for the company.”
In July of 2011, the state of Ohio approved a 7-year, 55-percent tax credit for Rittal to create 118 new jobs in Urbana and retain $21.7 million in existing payroll there.
It was among the first companies to receive state credits after JobsOhio, Gov. John Kasich’s privatized economic development agency, opened for business earlier that month. At the time, the tax credit was valued at $6.6 million.
Lawrence said the company is in the process of a multimillion-dollar upgrade to its Urbana facility and will add production jobs there.
The company has not received its tax credit yet, according to Development Services Agency spokeswoman Lyn Tolan. She said the state will begin auditing the company’s report for job creation from 2012.
The company’s new Chicago headquarters was to open today and be fully operation in September.
Lawrence said Rittal chose the Chicago area for its headquarters because of better access to international flights, access to worker-training programs, and because of other sister companies that have already located there.
jvardon@dispatch.com
@joevardon
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