Hain Celestial, the international organic and natural products organization with brands such as Terra, Sensible Portions, Celestial Seasonings, The Greek Gods and more, departed from its Lake Success headquarters Friday.
Company officials told Newsday the “shift to hybrid work over the past three years” led them to leave the 86,100-square-foot facility at 1111 Marcus Ave. in Lake Success.
“We decided to explore a HQ space that is right-sized for our needs,” the company told the newspaper.
Efforts to reach a Hain Celestial representative for comment on the matter were unavailing.
Hain Celestial was granted a 16-year freeze on its property taxes by the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency in 2012 after moving its headquarters from Melville to Lake Success. The company was scheduled to pay just shy of $400,000 to the county each year under a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, according to agency documents.
“We’d love for them to stay in Nassau County,” Nassau County Industrial Development Agency Chairman Richard Kessel said in an email to Blank Slate Media. “They are a great company. We’re continuing to talk to them.”
Agency officials told Newsday it is unclear what impact Hain Celestial’s move would have on the county. Hain Celestial has received more than $1.9 million in tax breaks as a result of the agreement with the agency.
The agreement between Hain Celestial and the agency requires them to stay in the Lake Success facility through 2029, according to agency documents. Officials did not say whether or not Hain will have to continue making its annual payments-in-lieu-of-taxes.
The company did not disclose to Newsday how many employees were working in the Lake Success building at the time of their departure from Nassau County, though the company’s 2022 annual report showed a decrease in employment and profits.
The agreement between the company and the Industrial Development Agency said Hain would create 50 new jobs to pay on average more than $130,000 per year. After having more than 250 Long Island employees over a decade ago, Hain Celestial had 239 local employees by the end of 2021, according to a report filed by the agency.
There were 3,078 Hain Celestial worldwide employees as of June 30, a figure which had decreased from more than 4,200 worldwide employees in 2020, according to the report. Hain Celestial’s net sales decreased by 5% to $454 million in its second fiscal quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year, according to a company report.
The company’s profit decreased from $31 million to $11 million during the same period of time, according to the report analyzing the second quarter, which ended in December 2022.
Hain’s stocks had taken a hit when it revealed its accounting practices were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2017, as well as a months-long delay in releasing its financial reports.
Hain Celestial officials said they informed the SEC in August 2016 of the company’s delay in the filing of the periodic financial reports and the performance of an independent review conducted by an audit committee, according to a previous filing.
The SEC ultimately determined that Hain Celestial “lacked sufficient policies and procedures to ensure the incentives were properly documented and accounted for,” according to a 2018 filing.
