P&G moving 150 Gillette jobs from Hub

Procter & Gamble Co. said it is transferring about 150 Boston jobs to other cities as part of the consumer products company's takeover of Gillette Co.

About 100 employees are moving to P&G's headquarters in Cincinnati, mainly to work in the company's oral care and personal care divisions. Another 25 people are transferring to Bethel, Conn., where the Duracell battery division is located. And about 25 employees are moving to Caracas, site of P&G's Latin American headquarters.

The bulk of the transfers are taking place during the summer and are expected to be completed by October, according to P&G spokeswoman Heather Valento .

Already Boston has lost about 400 Gillette jobs due to attrition and consolidation since Procter & Gamble acquired the company last year.

P&G's $54 billion takeover of the Boston shaving firm has created one of the world's largest consumer products conglomerates that joins Gillette's blades and razors with P&G's Tide detergent and Pampers diapers.

The takeover is expected to result in an estimated 5,000 job cuts from a combined workforce of 140,000 with Gillette's corporate headquarters at the Prudential Tower slated to take a big hit.

Gillette hasn't decided yet what to do with its lease at the Pru, where it uses space on 19 of the building's 52 floors, according to P&G spokeswoman Kelly F. Vanasse .

The company is exploring several options, including staying at the Pru; moving offices to Gillette's manufacturing facility in South Boston; or keeping some space at the Pru and moving the rest to South Boston. Gillette's lease expires in late 2009, and the company has hired a real estate services firm to assess its options in Boston.

Massachusetts is home to four major Gillette factories, including the South Boston plant, with about 1,800 employees, and one in Andover, which has about 400 employees and manufactures aerosol products.

There are also two plants at the Devens development, formerly the site of a military base on land in the towns of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley.

P&G said it is close to signing a lease extension at its larger packaging plant in Devens, which employs up to 1,000 full-time and temporary workers and has a lease that expires next year.

But P&G said it plans to shutter a small packaging plant at Devens in the fall, eliminating about 100 jobs and downsizing its warehouse and distribution facility. It represents the first Gillette factory closing in Massachusetts since P&G bought the company.

The 100 job cuts -- mainly temporary positions employed by third-party contractors -- are on top of an estimated 5,000 positions that are expected to be eliminated when the companies combined.

Some of the Devens operations are moving to a P&G plant in Greensboro, N.C., as part of a worldwide consolidation of its distribution centers. P&G has said it would shut down about half of its distribution centers.

Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.