It didn't take long for Textron to pull the plug on Arctic Cat's trendy new office in downtown Minneapolis. The news that the head office was closing was broken in a story by the Thief River Times earlier this week which stated that the HQ closing would affect some 60 Arctic Cat employees.
A Textron spokesman told the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper that most of the head office staff positions would be transferred to other Arctic Cat facilities, with most going to St. Cloud, Minnesota.
“It really was just an opportunity to consolidate some of our operations and get some teams of folks in product management, product engineering and marketing to co-locate and work together in the same space,” Brandon Haddock, spokesman for Textron told the Star-Tribune.
Mr. Haddock also told the papers that the new owners are closing an engine factory in Germany and bringing 60 to 100 additional new jobs to Arctic Cat manufacturing facilities in Minnesota.
Textron bought Arctic Cat in January 2017 for $247 million, and recently announced that Arctic Cat's ATV lines will now be known as Textron Off Road but their snowmobiles will continue to be branded under the Arctic Cat name.
The business press in Minneapolis had reported previously that Arctic Cat had signed a 13-year lease on their 50,000+ square foot purpose-built and custom renovated building which they had moved into back in August 2016. Textron has taken over the lease and is looking for a commercial enterprise to take over the building lease.
The Star Tribune also reported that production of Textron's Stampede side-by-side, off-road vehicle will also be transferred from Augusta, Ga., to Thief River Falls, in northern Minnesota.
Textron is a multi-industry, Fortune 500 company with over $13 billion in annual revenues and approximately 35,000 employees. Textron Specialized Vehicles markets products under the E-Z-GO®, Cushman®, Textron Off Road™, Jacobsen®, Dixie Chopper®, Ransomes®, TUG™, Douglas™, Premier™ and Safeaero™ brands. Textron also owns Cessna airplanes and Bell Helicopters.
Textron's Off Road division is based out of Atlanta, Georgia and their Head Office is in Providence, Rhode Island.
