Amcor sends 30 Melbourne jobs to Zurich

Packaging giant Amcor will send 30 jobs from its Melbourne office to Zurich but has denied reports that the move is part of a plan to shift its corporate headquarters out of Australia.

“It comes down to what’s the definition of headquarters?” said John V. Murray, Amcor’s executive general manager, corporate affairs.  “A number of corporate functions have already been relocated overseas and it’s a process that has been ongoing for several years. We have 29 thousand people and 180 plants in 45 different countries.  The future is like a virtual head office.”

Australia accounts for only 5% of Amcor’s business and it makes sense to relocate some functions closer to customers, said Murray.

“It’s not like we have a massive presence here.  We have 50 people on half a floor in a little building in suburban Hawthorn.  30 of those roles will now be moved offshore.  Some people will choose to relocate and for those who don’t want to relocate, their jobs will be filled by others offshore.  So there may be a small number of redundancies.”

A report last week said Amcor would permanently move its corporate headquarters to Zurich, Switzerland to take advantage of a corporate tax rate of 17.92%.

But the company’s head office is staying put, according to Murray.  “Amcor will remain a publicly listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange and it will remain an Australian tax resident.  The majority of corporate functions remain outside Australia, while some corporate functions will remain in Australia.  We will be retaining an office here in Melbourne, where the chairman resides.”