Chicago startup Crafty wants to practice what it preaches.
After laying off 100 employee — about two-thirds of its workforce — early on in the pandemic, the growing startup more than tripled the size of its office recently, doubling down on its belief that in-person offices aren’t going the way of the dodo bird just yet.
Crafty announced this week that it's relocating its headquarters, moving from a 3,500-square-foot office to one that’s 12,000 square feet in the heart of the Loop — a sign that the company remains committed to the in-person office environment, even as it's adjusted to serving businesses with hybrid workplaces.
“We’ve doubled down on the in-person employee experience overall and want a workplace that represents what we do as a business,” Chris Ritter, Crafty co-founder and COO, told the Chicago Business Journal. “We think we're crafting better workplaces. We're trying to do that for not just our internal team, but also for the clients that we have.”
Crafty offers supplies to offices such as coffee and snacks and provides the services and technology to manage a company’s pantry. It uses one platform to provide companies the services and technology they need to manage catering, cafes and supplies across all of their offices. Once Covid-19 hit, however, remote work grew out of necessity for most companies and industries, and Crafty likewise needed to adjust.
The company pivoted its business model to move away from owning its inventory and instead partnering with local coffee, catering and other providers and going for an asset-light approach. The office supplier is determined to keep the momentum going through the end of 2022 regardless of where the everyday employee may be working these days.
Crafty now offers in-office perks — such as popular snacks, other food and beverage, and other at-home essentials — shipped directly to the employee’s home. Crafty also wants to work more with local independent operators as it continues to grow. Crafty is now in 30 markets across the globe and manages more than 260 customer offices, servicing more than 300,000 employees per month after launching in 2015.
“Generally speaking, the market for sure has been hit by Covid,” Ritter said. “Fewer people are going into the office on a daily basis than they were in 2019, but we still see a growing market for Crafty when layering in the remote and hybrid needs of the employees that our clients have.”
'Focused on Chicago'
Crafty's new office — a full floor at 205 W. Wacker — represents the company's desire to remain Chicago-grown.
“We looked all over the city, and we are really excited about the space that we found in the Loop at 205 W. Wacker,” Ritter said. “We’ve hired aggressively and we’re focused on Chicago. That’s where our HQ is, and that’s where we expect it to remain.”
CBRE Group Inc. represented Crafty in the deal.
CBRE’s Brian McDonnell told CBJ that the move follows one of the biggest trends he’s seen in Chicago’s office space market which is the “flight to quality.”
“Tenants like Crafty are really trying to enhance employee experience and have [the office] be a place where people actually want to come to,” he said. “As a result, they are upgrading their space by class.”
A recent CBRE report shows that between Q1 2020 and Q1 2022, 60 office leases of more than 20,000 square feet were signed by tenants relocating in the Chicago market, and of those leases, 79% upgraded their space by building class and 85% moved to a building that was either recently built or underwent a major renovation.
