By the BF Staff
From the May/June 2020 Issue
TOPEKA, KS: THE RIGHT LOCATION AND THE RIGHT WORKFORCE FOR HQ
The location of any corporate headquarters is indicative of the success they, as a company, aspire to. It is chosen for its capable workforce, resources and geographical strengths. As well as its capacity for growth. And so is the case for the corporate HQs stationed in Topeka, Kansas.
Topeka, the capital city of Kansas, is home to various HQs with an emphasis on professional and financial services and animal health and ag tech. These organizations benefit from the Capital City’s particular strengths, including its central location within the Animal Health Corridor: an area stretching from Manhattan, Kansas, and Columbia, Missouri that is home to more than 300 animal health companies, representing the largest concentration in the world. A few distinct animal health organizations headquartered in Topeka include global and national standouts such as Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Bimini Pet Health.
Topeka, and Kansas in general, has the logistical advantage of being centrally located. To quote the Kansas Department of Commerce, “Kansas’ strategic location at the convergence of I-35 and I-70 places it at the crossroads of America.” As a “hub of accessibility,” it takes less than three days to reach anywhere in the continental U.S. from Topeka.
Other competitive advantages include Topeka’s lower energy cost (18 percent fewer than the national average); it’s lower cost of doing business (15 percent fewer than the national average); aggressive cash incentives for jobs, investment and training; access to talent from four major universities within a 60-mile radius; home to three of the top 10 financial service insurance marketing organizations (IMO); and is home to international peers: Security Benefit, Advisors Excel, Federal Home Loan Bank and Gradient. In recent years, Topeka has experienced a flurry of new growth and development. What follows is only a taste of the progress achieved by corporate HQs in the past year.
In August 2019 it was announced that Topeka had been selected by Plug and Play, a globally recognized venture capital fund and corporate innovation platform, to be a startup accelerator location focused on animal health science and ag tech. As Plug and Play’s next startup accelerator city, Topeka is slated to host upwards of 20 startup companies per year as each one goes through the three-month startup accelerator program. One of Topeka’s major attributes for selection is its prime location within the Animal Health Corridor.
Based out of Silicon Valley, Plug and Play is a global innovation platform that connects over 400 corporate partners from 17 industries with its ecosystem of startups, investors and public institutions, running over 60 accelerator programs across 30 global locations each year.
In December 2019, Walmart announced it had chosen the Capital City as the site of its next distribution facility in the United States. The arrival of this new distribution center will bring with it an estimated 300 new full-time positions over the next 5 years with competitive salaries plus benefits, which are among the best in the retail industry, creating in the next 10 years a total economic impact of $635 million.
Compared to Kansas’ three other Walmart distribution centers, Topeka’s new facility will be the largest in the state, with more than 1.8 million square feet at approximately 35′ clear stacking height. This contributes to the company’s more than 1.8 million square feet of existing space spread across its three other distribution center locations in Kansas.
There have been several recent expansions in Topeka. Since opening in 2005, insurance marketing organization (IMO) Advisor Excel has continued to not only thrive in Topeka, but also massively expand its workforce and facilities. In the fall of 2019, Advisors Excel finished its most recent expansion. In the next five years, this expansion will bring 220 new full-time jobs with an average salary of $52,000 plus benefits, resulting in a one-time economic impact of $12.4 million from the capital investment and a total economic impact of $650 million over 10 years from the added jobs.
Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive, has been a fixture in Topeka since the turn of the 20th century. Once an animal feed and meat packing company, Hill’s has gone on to break new ground in pet health and nutrition. The company is perhaps best known for their Science Diet brand pet food.
In August 2019, Hill’s Pet Nutrition broke ground on an outdoor Bark Park. The Engagement Center will have dedicated space to host educational seminars and continuing education programs for veterinary students and professionals as well as other career pet caregivers.
Bimini Pet Health, provider of private label and custom-manufactured pet supplements, announced plans to expand its operations in the Capital City in December 2019. In addition to new employment opportunities, the capital investment includes the building purchase and improvements.
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