Golden – Nutritional supplement company EAS Inc. will shutter most of its Golden headquarters and move to Columbus, Ohio – home of its corporate parent.
Abbott Laboratories, which purchased EAS late last year, on Thursday confirmed the relocation. Some workers will be offered positions in Ohio, and some jobs will be eliminated, said Tracey Noe, a spokeswoman for Abbott’s Ross Products division, which includes EAS.
The Golden office, which employed 115 people, handled the company’s marketing and administration functions.
Workers were notified of the decision Wednesday.
“Our goal is to improve our service to customers by enabling us to coordinate logistics, streamline systems and go to market as a united company,” Noe said.
Other brands in the Ross Products division – which includes Similac infant formula and Ensure nutrition shakes – are based in Columbus, she said.
Noe declined to provide a timeline for the closure but said different departments would move out of Golden over the next few quarters. The company will keep a sales office in Colorado, she said.
In addition to the Golden headquarters, EAS warehouses in Salt Lake City and Indianapolis will close. The Salt Lake warehouse employed 16; Indianapolis employed 23.
“It’s a heartbreaker,” said Jeff Holwell, division director of business development for the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. “We knew the acquisition in November could trigger some decisions by the company … but we were trying to find ways to get them to stay.”
The Office of Economic Development and International Trade had teamed with the Jefferson Economic Council and Golden to persuade the company to stay.
“We really didn’t have any incentives we could offer them because it was a retention,” said Michelle Claymore, vice president of the Jefferson Economic Council.
The council’s property-tax rebates could only be triggered if the company was expanding, she said.
Golden offered a $25,000 use-tax rebate, and the state pitched up to $800 per job in training money.
Economic development officials were unsure whether Ohio economic development agencies used incentives to encourage Abbott to move EAS. Noe said she was unsure as well.
“I hate to see this happen, but it’s symptomatic of what’s happening in emerging industries,” said Brian Vogt, director of the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Successful companies are increasingly snapped up by bigger companies that are under pressure from shareholders to continue growing, he said.
“EAS developed the right stuff, and they were a well- pulled-together company,” he said. “It’s disappointing but not a shock.”
Workers at the EAS headquarters, nestled against the foothills in Golden, declined to comment on the announcement Thursday afternoon.
The company leased the two buildings it occupied from former company chief executive Bill Phillips and a private investment firm. Phillips brought EAS to Golden and grew it into a sports-supplement powerhouse that was later bought out by Connecticut-based private equity fund North Castle Partners.
Golden officials have offered to work with the building owners to help locate new tenants for the site, said Golden spokeswoman Sabrina Henderson.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
