A Message From Gillette To The Neighborhood
As you know, in November 2019, we announced our intent to begin an assessment of our Massachusetts operations to enable a critical transformation for our Gillette business. The goal of this assessment was to transform our operations to make us stronger and more competitive in the future.
This morning, we informed our employees about the outcome of this assessment. This decision will bring the single most significant investment that we have ever made in Massachusetts as we transform our operations. This includes our single largest investment in Boston, our home for over a century, where we will maintain both commercial and technical operations in a city that offers so much in terms of innovation, education and culture.
We are confident that we have arrived at the right conclusion and optimistic about what the future holds. Our plan has two key components:
· The first is to create an industry-leading Global Headquarters and Technical Innovation Center in South Boston providing a more modern, dynamic and collaborative workspace in the very community where The Gillette Company was established so long ago. There is no better location for our HQ and Tech Center than in this epicenter of innovation, academia and world class talent. This location will bring tremendous advantage to our commercial, R&D and Engineering teams as we continue our century long heritage of innovation.
· The second is to move our South Boston manufacturing operations to our 150-acre campus in Andover where we will build a 21st Century production facility that is more sustainable, agile and efficient with some of the best manufacturing equipment and capabilities in the world. We will also accelerate key capabilities like digital infrastructure, sustainability and our employee experience to ensure a competitive edge ahead.
Our focus is very much on our people at this time. We will ensure that every current South Boston manufacturing employee who wants a role in Andover will have one. We will also offer a wide range of transition support to help any affected employees manage through the location change to ensure they are supported every step of the way.
As we undertake this transformation, one thing that won’t change is our work to enhance the community. This includes longstanding partnerships with the United Way of Massachusetts and South Boston Association of Nonprofits along with our bi-annual community grant process which funds the vital work of over 40 area nonprofit organizations each year.
As you might imagine, this business decision will create new possibilities for our campus in the future. Today, our 31-acre South Boston site is a gated, industrial site filled with empty parking lots. Tomorrow, it can be so much more. With the right partnerships and a thoughtful planning process, we can address some of Boston’s critical needs like bringing new jobs and economic opportunity, building more housing, bolstering climate resilience, and establishing an inclusive waterfront public space that connects surrounding neighborhoods to key public transportation hubs.
We believe this is a once-in a lifetime opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for our home and our community– and we are excited to begin this process with the community. We plan to host an open community meeting in the coming weeks to share perspective on why we have made this business decision, to talk about launching a more formal community process for site redevelopment and to hear any questions and thoughts on residents’ minds. We will keep you posted on the date of this meeting and community members can email us at gillettecommunity.im@pg.com to request meeting notifications.
