Global consumer products giant Unilever has cooked up a new U.S. headquarters for the post-pandemic world, settling in a lively Hudson River waterfront city with quick access to Manhattan that's only about a third the size of its prior location in the suburbs.
Unilever USA, with a multinational parent based in London, on Thursday officially unveiled its headquarters at Waterfront Corporate Center at 111 River St. in Hoboken, New Jersey. Unilever — parent of household-name brands such as Ben & Jerrys ice cream, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Dove soap and Vaseline — is leasing roughly 111,000 square feet at the office complex owned by SJP Properties of New York. The site is a base for 1,100 Unilever employees.
The new facility is a far cry from the consolidated headquarters that Unilever was showing off to the media in May 2018, two years before the COVID-19 outbreak roiled the world. Unilever's American hub then occupied about 320,000 square feet at 700 Sylvan Ave., at a sprawling site in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Unilever has had its U.S. base in the Garden State for 50 years, Herrish Patel, president of Unilever USA and CEO of Personal Care North America, said Thursday at the company's headquarters ribbon-cutting event. But a lot has changed in the seven years since Unilever consolidated operations in leafy Englewood Cliffs, according to Patel.
Unilever expects the Hoboken location to enhance collaboration for its teams, to support its hybrid work schedules — now that every worker isn't coming in every day — and to foster innovation and creativity. The headquarters — designed in partnership with global architecture firm Perkins & Will — features a clear Hudson River view of the Manhattan skyline, with natural light and open floor plans. Hoboken is a transit hub that makes travel to New York convenient, offering an easy commute for employees.
"Englewood Cliffs was built for a way that we worked in the past," Nate Barney, head of Global Workplace Service for Unilever, said at the event. "We now work in a very hybrid way. And so this location with the footprint that we have, with the proximity to our customers, with the proximity to talent pools, restaurants, you know, everything [is] on our doorstep. It just made a lot of sense. We wanted to move toward something different and new to help propel the business."
SJP Properties in August last year disclosed that Unilever was relocating from Englewood Cliffs. That location had a large open first-floor atrium area. There was a cafeteria with dozens of choices, a separate tea station, an ice cream parlor, a smoothie bar and a full fitness center. Those particular amenities are not at the new headquarters because they are available in urban Hoboken, according to Patel. The Hudson County city is known for its restaurant-and-bar scene.
Office ‘buzz’
And the smaller office footprint has particular advantages, he said.
"I want a hustle buzz in the office," Patel said. "I want people to be really close from a proximity perspective, not have huge gaps in the office space where it's quiet. We're a [consumer packaged goods] industry. Right? We serve 95% of Americans through our brands. That means we've got to be dynamic."
The unveiling came the same week that CBRE issued a report on the U.S. market, predicting that U.S. office conversions and demolitions will surpass new construction in that sector for the first time in years. The demand by some tenants for top-tier space is pushing obsolete offices from the market, according to CBRE.
After entering an airy reception area on the eighth floor of Unilever's headquarters, visitors soon see the state-of-the-art professional kitchen where Unilever Food Solutions chefs create and test recipes using iconic brands such as Hellmann’s. On Thursday, they offered up bagels with Taylor ham, eggs and cheese — a New Jersey breakfast favorite — a well as hero sub sandwiches.
That floor also includes a shop where employees can purchase products, but it's smaller than the one that was in Englewood.
Another carry-over from Englewood Cliffs: a full-service salon where employees and customers can try out beauty brands such as Dove, TRESemmé and Nexxus. Products are also developed from ideas there.
"In the new world of marketing, which we call social first, it's all about Instagram moments," Patel said. "You think about TikTok moments. This area is full of these type of moments, and that's where we want our brands to be, right in the heart of that culture."
Spaces with purpose
Unilever also showed off its customer-insight-and-innovation center, known as "CIC," where it said it "co-creates" with retailers like Walmart and Target. That entails discussing joint business plans and partnerships, sustainability and "broad spectrum problem solving," according to Unilever.
There are "business unit spaces" on the seventh and eighth floors "designed for optimal hybrid collaboration," according to the company. The penthouse level houses a town hall and multipurpose event space that "provides a forum that inspires unity, celebration, and fosters community among Unilever teams and partners," according to the company.
"Dynamic collaboration zones, cutting-edge meeting technology, and immersive innovation hubs for live collaboration and demonstrations, supporting the way people work today," Unilever said.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also spoke briefly at the ribbon-cutting. He said when he travels to pitch New Jersey to foreign businesses, he uses two words: talent and location.
"And that's where I start the story and it builds from there," Murphy said. "And Unilever is so much at center stage of who we think we are and who we aspire to be."
In addition to the new headquarters in Hoboken, Unilever has maintained about 100,000 square feet for research and development facilities in Englewood Cliffs, and has a similar facility in Trumbull, Connecticut, and 10 factories manufacturing its products.