Sealy to move Portland plant to Lacey, Wash.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Mattress maker Sealy will move its Portland factory to Lacey, Washington, a company spokesperson announced.
The Portland plant employs 128 people. It’s unclear how many employees will relocate with the plant, if any.
According to a news release from Sealy, the costs of operating the Portland plant were greater than the company’s other plants. The decision to relocate was also driven by the desire to be closer to more Sealy customers.
Nearly 60 percent of customers served by the Portland plant live in Wash., the company said.
“This decision was not made lightly by Sealy,” said Carmen Dabiero, Sealy’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources. “However, we believe relocating to Washington State is the best way to serve our Northwest retailers. We will continue to keep employees fully apprised of this transition as decisions and plans are finalized.”
The company announced tentative relocation plans to its Portland employees in September, but delayed a final decision to allow time for negotiations with the local unions. An agreement could not be reached that would have allowed the plant to stay in Portland, the company said.
No surpise.Oregon is so anti busness.
All of this makes alot of scense to me with the whole tax and so fort, now I dont think it has anything to do with the union at all and when I say this is becuase my husband is an employee here. He has worked for this company for many years as well as others too. The negotioation dint go through becuase sealy wanted to pay less way less.... now if this was a simple JOB TO DO which its not then Im sure they could of came to an agreement but sealy had already made up there mind that they where moving. Building mattress is no easy JOB frankly it sucks for us as a family I just hope and pray my husband doesnt get stuck on unemployement for a long time before he can get another job!
In other news unions killed hundreds of jobs for the workers and put them in the unemployment line.
Â
Between government and unions unemployment will go up and no one will have a job. Then I suppose the unions will require the unemployed to join a union of unemployed folks.
Â
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/article_a27e262c-ee54-5bf1-9f18-5c6c4c187f15.html#.UKJch9ZTbtQ.twitter
So I see a lot of educated guesses. Â The total tax burden for individuals ranks Oregon as 16th in the nation and Washington 28th, but that's not specifically for corporations. Â Oregon has a 6.6/7.6% corporate income tax, Washington does not but it does have a Business & Occupation tax. Â I'm no tax attorney, so I can't answer the question as well as I would like.
Â
We don't have Intel, or Nike, or Columbia, or any of a thousand other companies jumping across the river, so clearly the advantage either isn't that great or companies aren't as cavalier about relocating for nothing more than tax reasons as some posting here would like to suggest. Â
Â
So I'm still left curious about what specifically went into this decision by Sealy. Â Operational costs and taxes of course factored in, but by the company's own admission so did transportation related costs. Â
 @FestivusÂ
Let's see.
Â
Intel is big enough to get the tax breaks that smaller businesses don't get and Intel is NOT in Portland.
Â
Nike does not manufacturer anything in the US. It is all done in foreign countries. It is also NOT in Portland
Â
Columbia sportswear moved out of Portland to avoid the high taxes and into Washington county. Portland tried to get them to move back but Columbia declined due to the high cost of doing business in Portland. Columbia does not manufacturer anything in the US. It is all done overseas.
 @Festivus Intel has jumped the river, actually. they have a pretty big facility in Dupont, WA. I'm not up on all the ins and outs of what's taxed, but it's probably no accident that Nike doesn't actually have a production line in Oregon. I'm sure the usurious business-surly attitude of Oregon played a part in the closing of my company's plant, and why I'll be laid off at the end of 2014.
I'm going to be amused when Sealy realizes that it is actually more expensive to do business in Washington then Oregon. The business taxes and fees are higher, the income tax is on individuals, not companies. And there is a serious sales tax that the company can now pay for everything.
Â
Unless they are getting a bribe from Olympia/Lacey, they won't save money.
Â
And I have actually done the math as a business owner. It would have cost me an increase in costs of 2.7% annually to move over the river. Not counting the costs related to moving.
Â
It would have saved me paying the personal income tax, but that really isn't a big deal if you do something called planning.
 @ShallowEnder Income tax on individuals? Uh, no. Washington doesn't have income tax. They do, however, have one of the highest (if not the highest) sales tax in the country.
 @scoreboard The income tax in Oregon is on individuals. My point is that the business taxes in Washington are higher then Oregon's. The income tax issue is a red herring.
 @ShallowEnder    @scoreboardÂ
No sales taxes on wholesale items. Only at the retail level.
Â
Since Sealy sells wholesale to dealers there would not be a sales tax. Only when the consumer buys it.
 @RalphCramden  @scoreboard Two words: SALES TAX. Slap 7.8% on every single item you buy for your business. Actually 8.4% since we're talking about Olympia/Lacey. And if you think there are no taxes at the county level in Washington, you're delusional.
 @ShallowEnder  @scoreboardÂ
I don't know where you get your information.
Â
Oregon has an 8% business tax on anything over 250k. Washington has a business tax of 0.5% on manufacturing.
Â
On top of that Portland has a 2.2% business tax and Multnomah County adds on another 1.47%. That means to do business in Portland the tax is almost 12% which is 11.5% higher than Washington.
 @ShallowEnder I gotcha. The way I read it, it was like you were saying there was an income tax in Washington.Â
 @scoreboard 10th highest in the nation.
  """"""The company announced tentative relocation plans to its Portland employees in September, but delayed a final decision to allow time for negotiations with the local unions""""""
Â
so the unions inability to negotiate with the company played  a part of the company moving..... no kidding
Â
Oregon income tax....9% - 11%      Washington income tax 0% ...... add to that  unions unwilling to negotiate  and its surprising they didn't move sooner.
 @kramr I read it as they made the decision to move already, but delayed the actual moving date to give more time to negotiate with the union on what would happen with their current employees after said move.
I'd like to hear a specific breakdown on what was more expensive about working here - and spare me your guesses, thanks.
Â
You can't fix what's broke without a specific list of grievances.
 @FestivusÂ
Oreogn corporate income tax 8%
Portland business income tax 2.2%
Multnomah County business income tax 1.47%.
Â
That is almost 12% tax that has to be added onto business and is passed on to the consumer.
Â
Business tax in Washington state: 0.5%
Business tax in Lacey Washington 0%
Â
Savings to Sealy in moving. 11.5%
 @Festivus I used to file quarterly taxes for the company I worked for in WA. Really they aren't too bad. The sales tax is paid by the consumer, so that isn't even part of the equation. If Sealy is inside Portland city limits, they have numerous layers of taxes. Portland city tax, Multnomah County tax and the Metro tax, beside the state taxes, if they pay any at that level. It could very well be some of the local regulations, which cost a company money to comply with but don't show up as a concrete number on a spreadsheet. But yeah, we're just guessing. I can say that property taxes, and water and sewer charges are less (on a residential level) in WA than they are in Portland, perhaps it's the same at a business level.
@Festivus   """""You can't fix what's broke without a specific list of grievances."""""
Â
apparently whatever is broke is considered UNfixable in Oregon. Some rather obvious unfixable issues would be 11% Oregon income tax, multco income tax,  and a union unwilling to negotiateÂ
@Festivus State Income Tax and Workmans Comp are two things that jump out.
@Billy Batts  doesn't multco have its own income tax as well?
The company announced tentative relocation plans to its Portland employees in September, but delayed a final decision to allow time for negotiations with the>>> local unions<<<. An agreement could not be reached that would have allowed the plant to stay in Portland, the company said.
Â
That's the main reason. Wonder how this will affect the "Unions" posture?
@disgustedman The posture? They'll probably think that they're hot stuff after a company decides to pack up and leave, in part because of their actions.
"According to a news release from Sealy, the costs of operating the Portland plant were greater than the companyâs other plants."
Â
Glad they spoke the truth. Portland is expensive to do business in.
They've been there quite a while. Finally wised up that doing business in Oregon (and Portland) is very expensive.