Rubbermaid Home Products no longer will call Fairlawn, Ohio, home as Newell Rubbermaid Inc. officials are relocating the unit's headquarters to Huntersville, N.C.
Newell Rubbermaid of Atlanta announced the decision Nov. 13, the same day the state of North Carolina announced an expansion at Rubbermaid's campus in Huntersville.
``When we look at our company overall, right now we are looking at growing innovation and leveraging our resources,'' Newell Rubbermaid spokeswoman Esther Lippman said Nov. 15 by phone. ``Having that collocation, this move really allows us to grow and be more innovative.''
The Home Products division will move by the third quarter of 2007, but Rubbermaid will keep its customer and consumer services in Fairlawn, retaining roughly 60 jobs, the company said. The site had employed 200.
Huntersville is home to Rubbermaid Foodservice Products and another Newell division, Irwin Industrial Tools, including its power tool accessories and hand tools businesses. Its campus in Huntersville employs 378. On Nov. 13, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley announced that Newell will expand that campus and create 320 jobs during the next five years.
Under the expansion plan, Newell will build a $5 million, 50,000-square-foot facility. The 320 jobs will be created in professional and management positions, according to Easley's office.
North Carolina's Economic Investment Committee has awarded a Job Development Investment Grant to Newell. Under the nine-year grant, the Department of Commerce estimates that Newell's project will generate net state revenue of $32.3 million and contribute $2.2 million to the state's Industrial Development Fund for infrastructure improvements in rural and economically distressed areas of North Carolina.
Rubbermaid Home Products chose Fairlawn as its headquarters after Newell closed the landmark Wooster, Ohio, plant in 2003.