Sherwin-Williams’ new headquarters tower just west of Public Square in Downtown Cleveland is due to open later this year. But there may be fewer employees moving to it from the old HQ several blocks away, according to employees who say the company is reducing JQ staff (The Sherwin-Williams Company). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Early retirement, voluntary separations offered by SHW
With Sherwin-Williams due to move into its new headquarters tower in Downtown Cleveland later this year, there may be fewer managers making that move. That’s according to two company sources who told NEOtrans on the condition of anonymity that Sherwin-Williams is downsizing its headquarters staff, primarily through early retirements and/or voluntary layoffs.
NEOtrans reached out to company spokespersons today to learn more about the staffing reductions, including the number of positions that will likely be affected. However, we have yet to receive a response from the company’s external communications staff. If we do, this article will be updated with that response.
Three Sherwin-Williams business units will be affected by this downsizing. Employees in those sections were notified today by intra-office e-mails and a online “townhall meeting.” The differently worded e-mails were from the directors of their business units. NEOtrans has secured copies of those e-mails.
“As some of you may have heard, earlier today, the company announced that it is offering a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) to certain employees in the finance, enterprise technology, and business services departments,” said one director. “These departments have experienced transformative change in the past few years and would benefit from reducing complexity.”
Sherwin-Williams planned to move about 3,100 of its 3,500 office workers from throughout Greater Cleveland into its new headquarters in Downtown Cleveland. But the number of employees making the move is unknown, especially with the news that the company is reducing its management ranks (The Sherwin-Williams Company).
About 3,100 headquarters employees are expected to make the move in waves to the new 36-story skyscraper tower. NEOtrans was first to report that the opening of the tower will be delayed by another seven months due to workers having to provide extra fire-resistant coating to the building’s structural steel. This includes going back to apply the coating on lower floors that were already finished.
Another director wrote: “Thank you for joining us earlier today in the townhall meeting to learn about the 2025 Voluntary Separation Program. This program will allow the company to accelerate the transformation of the participating departments by simplifying the complexity of the organizational structure and re-thinking responsibilities and how we do work in a way that delivers value added service to internal and external customers while reducing costs.”
That e-mail continued by saying that this staffing change, which included consolidations and combinations with other organizations across the company, “revealed opportunities to simplify their management layers and optimize the ratio of supervisors to employees.” Not included in the downsizing is Sherwin-Williams Enterprise Risk and Resilience organization. The e-mail states that they are not eligible to participate in the VSP.
VSP-eligible employees were categorized in the townhall meeting as “Individual Contributors” with 20 or more years of service plus “Managers of others” and “Managers of Managers” with 15 or more years of service. Also, those who are either retirement eligible or within one year of retirement eligibility are also eligible to participate, the notice said.
Already lighting up the night sky in Downtown Cleveland is Sherwin-Williams’ new headquarters (Tom Ray).
“We play a critical role in protecting our company’s assets, data and overall resilience,” said one business unit’s director, per their e-mail. “I want to recognize and appreciate the incredible work you do every day. Looking ahead, we remain focused on continuous improvement and innovation. We will continue strengthening our capabilities, enhancing our defenses, and ensuring we are well-prepared for future challenges.”
When asked what may be motivating the staffing reduction, one of the sources speculated that, based on the company’s latest financial report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that much of it is likely a result of trying to “get ahead of changes in consumer demands, impending tariffs and inflation.”
Another source said the downsizing news is a matter of bad timing, what with the new downtown headquarters and suburban research center opening, representing a total expenditure of $750 million. And, the company announced it is expanding overseas.
“A tough look considering the numerous tax breaks they received for the new HQ, not to mention the $1.15 billion in cash they just spent last week on a South American coatings company acquisition,” the source said.
The city of Cleveland provided Sherwin-Williams with a $100 million incentive package to build its new 1-million-square-foot headquarters in Downtown Cleveland. That package included a grant to reimburse the company 50 percent of income taxes from new jobs created for 15 years. The maximum payout is capped at $11.5 million.
Lower floors in Sherwin-Williams’ headquarters were just about finished when the company’s HQ development team realized that insufficient fire resistant coating was applied to the tower’s structural steel (The Sherwin-Williams Company).
Axios reported that this grant was paid out in 2020. A second grant, representing a $13.5 million construction grant from the city’s Department of Economic Development, also was provided to the 159-year-old company.
Sherwin-Williams’ headquarters of the last 95 years has been at the 900,000-square-foot Landmark Office Tower, 101 W. Prospect St., in Tower City Center. It expanded to include more than 100,000 square feet in the Skylight Office Tower, 1660 W. 2nd St., also in the Tower City complex.
Two years ago, Sherwin-Williams’ headquarters staffing was growing so quickly that it had to sublease 212,000-square-foot of office space from Key Corp. in the old Higbee Building, 100 Public Square. There, it is accommodating nearly 500 workers.
The growth has led to insiders reporting to NEOtrans that Sherwin-Williams could seek a second headquarters building immediately west of the new tower. But high costs and other difficulties in construction and the uncertainty as to how and where employees will fill out the new headquarters has caused the rumors to die down in the past year. These staffing reductions could throw more cold water on talk of a second building.
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