Big Blue shifts focus to China

IBM has announced it will move its global procurement HQ to China from its present location in New York.

The new base will be located in Shenzhen, where the company already has 1,850 employees involved in procurement. IBM said no jobs will be lost in New York as a result of the move. The Big Apple office will continue to function as a global procurement unit.

Chief procurement officer, John Paterson, who will head up the Shenzhen office, said global businesses must now locate their business units wherever makes the most sense, based on "the imperatives of economics, expertise and open environments".

IBM has had one of its largest procurement bases outside the US in Shenzhen for over a decade but with 30 per cent of IBM's annual $40bn procurement budget spent with Asian suppliers, the company says locating their global procurement HQ in China makes sense.

This is the first time a global IBM organisation has been established outside the US.