Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar announced it would be relocating its headquarters from Illinois to Texas after 100 years to “attract new talent.”
The company announced news Tuesday that it would be moving to Irving sometime this year and relocating most of its employees. The company told Fox News that it expects most of its approximately 230 Deerfield employees to relocate.
The company, which employs more than 100,000 people worldwide, has had a presence in the Republican state since the 1960s, but Illinois remained the world’s largest concentration of employees, Fox News reported.
Caterpillar, based in Illinois since 1925, is the next company to join Elon Musk’s Tesla in Lone Star state.
The construction company will now become the 54th Fortune 500 to be based in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott is pleased to announce in a statement.
Caterpillar announced it will be moving its headquarters to Irving, Texas this year after 100 years in Illinois. The company said the new move would “attract more talent” and provide opportunities (pictured: Illinois headquarters).
Governor Greg Abbott celebrated the “big win” for Texas and announced that the company would become the 54th Fortune 500 company to be headquartered in the state
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (left) said he was “disappointed” with the move because the company has been in the state since 1925. Abbott (right) said Texas “would be a perfect fit for this international brand.”
“I’m proud to welcome Caterpillar’s Texas headquarters and excited by the economic opportunity this will create for Texans,” Abbott said in a statement.
Several companies have recently left liberal states in favor of the lower corporate tax state, including Tesla, Hewlett Packard, Oracle and venture capital firm 8VC. Amazon also opened a tech hub in Houston.
The Fortune 500 company announced it is relocating its headquarters to “attract new talent and provide our current employees with additional career opportunities to support retention,” a spokesman said.
Caterpillar is now joining the ranks of Elon Musk’s Tesla, which has also relocated its headquarters to Texas. More than 200 companies have moved there since Abbott took office in 2015 (pictured: Musk at the 2022 Met Gala)
“We believe it is in the company’s best strategic interest to take this step, which supports Caterpillar’s strategy for profitable growth as we help our customers build a better, more sustainable world,” CEO Jim Umpleby said in a statement .
The move would also allow employees access to several high-quality school zones, as well as suburban and downtown residential areas, Bloomberg reported.
Companies that have moved to Texas
- Tesla
- Hewlett-Packard
- oracle
- 8VC
- Caterpillar
- Joe Rogan’s production company
- Aeromax Industries
- Astura Medical
- Karl Schwab
- Green Dot
- Incora
- Maddox Defense
- Pabst Brewing Co
Many companies have chosen to relocate to Texas because of the state’s low corporate tax rate of around 20 percent – one of the lowest in the country. The location is also in the middle of the country, making it a central hub for communication and travel. Corporate rents are also low, especially when compared to DC, LA or Chicago. and it’s more affordable for employees, according to Hartman, a Texas office and warehouse leasing management company. The state does not tax income either.
Abbott also praised the move and Texas, calling the state the “perfect fit for this international brand.”
Since Abbott took office in 2015, 250 companies have relocated their headquarters to the state of Lone Star, according to a statement.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is seeking re-election, said he was “disappointed” that the longtime company was leaving the Midwest because “so many companies are coming into the state.”
“We will continue to support the 17,400 Illinoisans who work for the company in East Peoria, Mapleton, Mossville, Pontiac and Decatur – which remains Caterpillar’s largest manufacturing facility in North America,” he said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg .