Austin News

A global supplier of weightlifting and strength training equipment plans to recruit locally as it moves its North America headquarters from Chicago to Austin.

Eleiko Sports North America headquarters will make Austin the Swedish company’s logistics hub, a press release said. The company will lease 52,946 square feet of space at Ben White 6 at 3910 S. Industrial Blvd., Aquila Commercial, the leasing company, said on its website. The new facility is expected to be completed in mid-March.

The Austin headquarters will have offices, a warehouse, and a new Eleiko Sport Center. 

“While the Chicago team is relocating to Austin, Eleiko will also be recruiting locally to support this expansion,” the press release said. Eleiko’s relocated facility’s logistics center will bring about “quicker order processing, greater shipment flexibility and quality control.”

The hub will host a complete weightlifting and strength training center to support courses, workshops, and seminars for coaches, athletes, and personal trainers. Long term plans include a retail space within the facility to support local direct to consumer sales.

Eleiko is a family-owned and operated business that began in 1957 producing weightlifting equipment, its website said. Thirty years prior to 1957, the company produced “small electrical appliances such as toasters and waffle irons,” but a weightlifter’s frustrations changed the company’s business model.