P&G Gillette plans to move its manufacturing operations out of Boston to Andover, Massachusetts, after more than a century of production in the city, according to a Tuesday press release.
The decision comes four years after the grooming company began a site assessment on how to best use its facilities in the two cities. The strategy now is to modernize its South Boston global headquarters and technical innovation center, while expanding its Andover campus into a manufacturing hub.
The announcement represents the largest investment Proctor & Gamble has ever made in Massachusetts, including nearly $1 billion for the new plant, lab facility and headquarters, a P&G Gillette spokesperson said in an email.
Gillette's Andover campus expansion will transform the 150-acre site into a modern manufacturing center to support its blade and razor, aerosol and chemistry manufacturing lines, packaging operations and direct-to-consumer operations.
It will also enable other P&G business units to leverage the Andover manufacturing facility. P&G Beauty will use the campus to double production of its bar soap over the next two years, and has begun an assessment for the potential addition of other product categories to the Andover site.
The Boston campus will retain 750 of the 1200 workers that are currently employed at Gillette's headquarters, R&D and engineering divisions. The other employees will transition to Andover in phases over the next few years, with the first set of workers moving in two to three years.
“I’m confident that we’ve reached the right conclusion and I’m glad that we will continue to have a meaningful presence in both communities — including Boston, which has been our home for over a century and offers so much in terms of innovation, talent, education, and culture,” Gary Coombe, CEO of P&G Grooming, said in a statement.
P&G acquired Gillette for $57 billion in 2005, forming one of the world’s largest consumer products companies.
