Newell Rubbermaid to move HQ into smaller space

Newell Rubbermaid said in a news release Wednesday it will move early next year into a property it bought in the Embassy Row development on Peachtree Dunwoody Road in Sandy Springs. The building, to be renovated, is about half the size of the building it now occupies.

The company said it “will be purpose-fit for how employees work today and into the future.”

“The business case for change in our headquarters location is driven by the fact that our current building is underutilized.”

The company said about 900 people are based at headquarters but many work remotely or at other locations, and that the move is “not based on any changes to our Atlanta employee base.”

Newell Rubbermaid moved more than a decade ago from Illinois to Georgia.

The company is now based at 3 Glenlake Parkway, a 14-story tower overlooking Ga. 400 at Abernathy Road. Newell Rubbermaid was the sole tenant of the building, originally developed by a group led by Greenstone Properties and now owned by Columbia Property Trust.

The Glenlake building could become a tempting location for another large company in an area where office space is tight.

In its first quarter earnings report in May, Newell Rubbermaid said it would expand cost-savings initiatives to include corporate overhead.

Newell Rubbermaid endured a difficult recession and a downturn in consumer spending. Headcount at the end of 2014 was 17,400 worldwide, down from about 19,900 at end of 2011.

Net sales were $5.73 billion in 2014, up 2.1 percent from a year earlier. Profit fell about 20 percent to $377.8 million, in part because of settlement charges over pensions. First quarter sales this year rose 4.1 percent.

“We are transforming Newell into a faster growing, more profitable, more global company,” company President and CEO Michael Polk said in the release. “We have made great progress strengthening our brands and accelerating performance, and our new headquarters work space will be collaborative, mobile, technology-enabled and more productive than our current headquarters.”