Annapolis, Md. – Yesterday, Gerber Products announced that it will move its headquarters from New Jersey to Rosslyn, VA and bring more than 150 new jobs and $5 million in investments to the region—another example of Hogan’s failure to bring businesses to Maryland. Last year, Gerber’s parent company, Nestle Foods, also moved its headquarters to Rosslyn. Governor Hogan’s claim that Maryland is “open for business” makes a nice slogan, but under his leadership, companies have repeatedly chosen Virginia over our state.
“Governor Hogan has been shortchanging Marylanders for three years, and Gerber choosing Virginia over Maryland is just another example,” said Maryland Democratic Party chair Kathleen Matthews. “On top of failing to attract businesses to our state, Governor Hogan is undermining the assets—our workers and public schools—that make Maryland competitive for business. Marylanders deserve better.”
Gerber’s announcement joins a long list of missed opportunities and lost jobs for Marylanders. In January, Governor Hogan became the first Maryland governor to lose a Fortune 500 company in decades with Discovery’s announcement that it will move its headquarters to New York. Hogan then dismissed the impact of Discovery’s departure as “not the end of the world.”
Last year, Facebook, Nestle and Boeing chose to invest in Virginia instead of Maryland. When President Trump cancelled a project to move the headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which would have brought thousands of high-paying jobs to Maryland, Governor Hogan sat by and did nothing.