Bemis Headquarters Moving to Wisconsin

Packaging maker Bemis Co. Inc. is moving its headquarters from Minneapolis to Neenah, Wis.

Bemis, the 18th largest public company in Minnesota and a member of the Fortune 1000, announced this morning that its board of directors approved the move to Neenah. Neenah is near Appleton in eastern Wisconsin, about 40 miles southwest of Green Bay.

The change will mean relocations for about 20 to 25 of Bemis' 90 employees. The remaining staff will stay in Minneapolis where that location will be converted into an administrative office.

Jeff Curler, Bemis chairman, president and CEO and four other corporate officers already live and work in the Neenah area. "Although we have been based in Minneapolis for several decades, we will benefit from establishing our corporate headquarters in a location where we have the largest investment and concentration of employees and operations," Bemis Chief Executive Curler said in a statement.

The existing Minneapolis office in the Campbell Mathun Tower in downtown will remain open for various finance, accounting, tax and information technology functions.

Wisconsin and Minnesota weren't given a chance to compete for the headquarters, although Minnesota state officials have been alerted of the move, said Melanie Miller, Bemis' vice president and treasurer.

Bemis simply wanted to move its executive officers closer to the manufacturing plants in Wisconsin, she said.

Bemis now has 350 employees in Minnesota, compared to 12 plants and about 3,400 employees in Wisconsin.

Bemis makes flexible and pressure-sensitive packaging materials. In 2004, it reported 2004 sales of $2.8 billion.

Information derived from sblack@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2103 and scarlson@pioneerpress.com | (651) 228-5470 .