 "Scores of firms in Maximum City have moved to better, larger offices")
Snacks powerhouse Mondelez International, the $35-billion demerged entity of Kraft Foods, which owns brands such as Cadbury and Oreo, is also shifting office in search of a bigger and better workspace. Many in the recent past have made a similar transition here. Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Procter & Gamble (P&G), Cipla, L’Oreal, Marico, Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD), Fiat, Essar, ad & media agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), Rediffusion Y&R, Everest, GroupM, Contract and DDB Mudra. Plus, blue-chip financial institutions and banks such as Deutsche Bank and CRISIL have all bitten the bullet at some stage in recent years.
“We were growing and needed a bigger space to house our new employees,” says Harsh Mariwala, chairman & managing director of the Rs 4,584-crore Marico Ltd, maker of brands such as Parachute and Saffola, which recently moved office from Bandra to Kalina, an upcoming business district. Thanks to its proximity to the Bandra Kurla Complex, it has seen organisations from finance to manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and now consumer goods set up base there. “The new office is spread across four floors and has a total area of 60,000 square feet. It has the capacity to accommodate over 500 people,” Mariwala said.
As companies look to accommodate a growing workforce, the pressure to move to a larger office is growing, says Ramesh Nair, managing director (west) at real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle India. “But there are other factors at work, too, including the ability to provide better amenities, the quality of new buildings, cutdown in commute time, as well as the need to centralise operations under one roof, all linked to an employee-friendly human resources (HR) policy.”
Adding: “Since the financial meltdown of 2008-09, the costs to set up a new office in Mumbai are down by about 40 per cent, thanks to the correction that real estate prices have seen.”
Companies have taken full advantage of this. CRISIL moved from Worli to Powai and Mondelez proposes to go north, according to its spokesperson, which many speculate is likely to be Thane, the location of its factory and an upcoming research & development facility. Cipla is said to be moving to Lower Parel from its iconic location at Bellasis Road, Mumbai Central, which has been the pharma major’s headquarters since pre-1947 days. So has Fiat, which following the end of its distribution tie-up with the Tata Group, moved office from the central suburb of Chembur to Lower Parel.
L’Oreal and ABD have moved within central Mumbai itself, while P&G and HUL have shifted from central and south Mumbai respectively to the north-western suburb of Andheri. Ad agencies O&M, GroupM and DDB Mudra have all moved from central Mumbai to the north-western suburbs of Goregaon and Santacruz, while Contract has gone the other way round, from Andheri to Elphinstone Road. So has Rediffusion and sister agency Everest, which moved from Andheri to Vile Parle two years earlier.
Sanjeev Dixit, head of HR at liquor major ABD, the maker of Officer’s Choice, which according to the International Wine & Spirits Report, a key piece of research tracked by alcoholic-beverage makers, is the largest-selling whisky in the world, says, “To me, shifting of office not only has tangible but also intangible benefits attached. It speaks of the work culture and ethos that a company is trying to propagate, which helps in attracting talent.”
HUL, for instance, has everything from convenience stores to a library, food court, an occupational health centre, a gym, sports & recreation centre and a daycare centre to help employees maintain a work-life balance at its Andheri campus.
DDB Mudra, on the other hand, wanted to announce to the world that it had transformed from a mere ad agency to an integrated marketing services company when it acquired a new address at Kalina, opposite the Grand Hyatt Hotel and next to corporate majors such as Asian Paints, three years earlier. The change in office was accompanied by a new management structure, a new website, et al. The icing on the cake was when old-time partner DDB raised its stake in Mudra, taking majority control of the agency. The transformation, in a sense, was complete.