Hewlett Packard Enterprise to cut jobs, move manufacturing after Harvey flooding

A hose is weighed down by sandbags as it pumps out water from the Hewlett Packard Enterprise building next to Lone Star College University Park's Enterprise and Manufacturing Institute. A hose is weighed down by sandbags as it pumps out water from the Hewlett Packard Enterprise building next to Lone Star College University Park's Enterprise and Manufacturing Institute. Photo: Mayra Cruz Photo: Mayra Cruz Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Hewlett Packard Enterprise to cut jobs, move manufacturing after Harvey flooding 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Hewlett Packard Enterprise will move its manufacturing operations and 290 related jobs out of northwest Houston after Hurricane Harvey "irreparably damaged" facilities there.

HPE will also move more than 3,000 non-manufacturing employees to a new site in the greater Houston area. Its current campus is located next to Cypress Creek, which has flooded two years in a row. The changes were announced publicly and to employees on Wednesday.

HPE President Antonio Neri emphasized the company's "long history" here and its commitment to the region.

"We look forward to many more years as part of the community in a new Houston-area campus, purpose-built for our company," he said in a statement.

HPE is relocating its manufacturing operations to its site in Chippewa Falls, Wis., and to HPE's supply chain partner Flex in Austin. The company will attempt to relocate or find other roles within HPE for as many manufacturing employees as possible.

Most HPE employees, including sales, business unit, supply chain, legal and human resources teams, will remain in the current campus until a new Houston location has been identified and built, according to the news release.

It's not the first local business to cite devastating impacts from the hurricane in forcing a dislocation. Telecheck Services, a 53-year-old check-guarantee company, said it is closing its Sugar Land headquarters and laying off 406 workers.

First Data Corp., the Atlanta-based parent company of Telecheck, informed the Texas Workforce Commission of its plans last month. Those employees can relocate to other First Data facilities across the country or accept a severance from the company.

Yet Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership, said Wednesday that he doesn't expect Hurricane Harvey to halt business growth in Houston. He said it could change how the city is developed, and it could prompt businesses to do some retrofitting or mitigation work to prevent similar damage in the future. But he doesn't expect to see a mass exodus.

"Harvey will affect how people do business and where they do business, but it's not going to prevent them from doing business," Jankowski said.

Jankowski added that Hurricane Harvey primarily affected residential communities and small businesses. Flooding didn't affect a large portion of Houston's industrial community.

"It's a concern whenever we lose any manufacturer. It's a concern whenever we lose any employer," he said. "This is most likely an isolated incident. It's not a tide of things to come."