Carnation Co. Plans to Move From Mid-Wilshire Office

Carnation Co. said Thursday that it plans to move its headquarters out of the Mid-Wilshire district, probably to a site north or east of downtown Los Angeles. No final decisions on the relocation or scheduled moving date have been made, but areas being considered range from Studio City east to Pomona, said Carnation spokeswoman Celeste Miller.

Carnation, which has been weighing possible new sites for the past year, wants to leave its home of the past 38 years mainly because it needs more room for its headquarters staff of about 1,000, Miller said.

The dairy and food products concern has been located on Wilshire Boulevard, between Highland and La Brea avenues, since 1949. No plans for the existing building, which Carnation owns, were immediately announced.

But Carnation also is interested in specifically relocating closer to the 134 or 210 freeways because many of its employees live in the communities hugging those routes, she said.

“It is Carnation’s desire to cause the least disruption of commute times for our employees,” Miller said.

She declined, however, to elaborate on Carnation’s moving plans, saying any additional comments “would be speculation.”

Carnation was acquired by Nestle S.A., the privately held Swiss food giant, for $3 billion in 1985. Carnation’s last publicly disclosed sales, for 1985, totaled $2.5 billion.