Chicago lost another corporate headquarters Tuesday, as Whitman Corp. announced that it has changed its name to PepsiAmericas Inc. and based several top executives in Minneapolis.
The move comes weeks after Chicago-based Whitman, the No. 2 bottler of PepsiCo Inc. beverages, completed its purchase of Minneapolis-based PepsiAmericas Inc., the third-largest Pepsi bottler, in a deal valued at about $331.7 million plus $330 million in assumed debt. The combined company, with $3.1 billion in revenues, is headed by Robert Pohlad of PepsiAmericas.
Pohlad will be joined in Minneapolis by a few senior executives, but most administration and finance staff will remain in suburban Rolling Meadows, according to John Bierbaum, executive vice president. The move of the headquarters won’t affect the company’s commitment to Chicago, he said. “That won’t change. We’ll be just as big a force in Chicago as we ever were.”
