Oneida Group Gets a New HQ to go with a New Name
What used to be Everyware Global has become Oneida Group, and with that new identity has come a new look. The global dining and food prep company had previously housed its headquarters in Lancaster, Ohio, and New York. Along with a consolidation came the search for a HQ location. Early on, the search included Easton. The vice president of executive capability and communication, Samantha Nahra, says Easton “was lovely and offered a lot of the same benefits—but the convenience of [Downtown] … was a big incentive.”
Oneida's new home is on Civic Center Drive, overlooking the Scioto River and COSI. Nahra says the former Lancaster location didn't have windows because they were all interior offices. “Getting the natural light and enjoying checking out what's going on with the season changes has been fantastic,” she says.
Executive offices ring the space, but light still reaches the entire floor, which sports the company blue and is laid out in a triangle shape near the front and a rectangle near the back. Huddle spaces are scattered throughout so employees can have private meetings. The ceiling is exposed, giving the space a modern look. Nahra says that this makes the office look bigger and adds interesting flair. A kitchen that looks like it's from a home goods magazine is used by employees or (temporarily) by the in-house photographer for pictures of products in use.
“[The kitchen] sort of mimics what I'd love my home kitchen to look like,” says Nahra. “On the second floor that is still under construction, that's where we will build our commercial kitchen, which we can then use for that type of photography.”
In addition to all these touches, Nahra says the convenience of the location was a huge selling point. “We're close to the highway, we're close to the airport, we're close to a ton of apartment spaces. A number of people live somewhere between the Short North and German Village or Clintonville and German Village. … It's really enabled us to be a little bit more involved with the community.”
She adds: “One of the big reasons we had wanted to relocate to Columbus was to be closer to some of the universities and to build relationships and to, of course, recruit from the universities.”
The new HQ is visual representation for what the company was already doing to consolidate. “We didn't unite under one corporate umbrella, so last January we changed our name from Everyware Global to the Oneida Group to sort of leverage that historic, iconic brand Oneida that we're very well-known for,” says Nahra. “This office space really promoted that one-company vision. It sort of tied it all together.”
