Chicago suffered a major blow this week—Caterpillar is ditching the crime-ridden city and moving its headquarters to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
The company, with major operations in Oklahoma City, announced it will leave Deerfield, Illinois and relocate its global headquarters in Irving, Texas. Deerfield is a suburb at the northern reaches of Chicago.
“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move, which supports Caterpillar’s strategy for profitable growth as we help our customers build a better, more sustainable world,” Caterpillar chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby said in a statement.
The company has more than 107,000 employees around the world and has been in Texas since the 1960s. The company expects most of its 230 employees in Deerfield to make the move to the Dallas area.
“Texas widened its lead as the #1 state in America for Fortune 500 company headquarters,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted. “We are proud that Catapillar now calls Texas home. We are a perfect fit for this international brand.”
Caterpillar joins the likes of Oracle, Tesla, and Hewlett Packard Enterprises to make the move to Texas in recent years.