Food giant Kraft signed a lease this week on an office building in Zurich, Switzerland, where it will be setting up its new centralised European head office, the company told just-food today (5 January).
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Kraft announced in September of last year its intention to increase the size of its European head office as part of plans to centralise European administration, marketing and production operations. Currently, Kraft’s European head quarters are split between a number of locations with the majority of employees based in London, Kraft’s Richard Johnson told just-food.
Having considered a number of potential cities, Kraft settled on Zurich because of its accessibility, transport links, quality of life and services such as international schools and health care, Johnson commented. Another factor influencing Kraft’s decision may have been the low corporate taxes on offer in Switzerland.
Having signed the lease this week, Kraft anticipates completing the move by the summer of 2008. “”We signed the lease on an office building this week. The first people will start relocating to Zurich shortly and we expect the move to be completed in the next 18-months,” Johnson said.
Johnson added that the majority of Kraft workers have been invited to relocate, however, he acknowledged that the move would result in some job losses. “At the moment its too early to tell how many jobs will be lost,” he said. “We don’t yet have any numbers.”
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