Valvoline Global didn’t leave Lexington. We let them go. 

Valvoline Global Operations announced Monday that they are moving its global headquarters from Lexington to downtown Cincinnati. Cincinnati’s mayor called it “a huge win… for our local economy, and for the momentum our city and partners have been working to build.”

Their gain is Lexington’s – and Kentucky’s –direct loss. 

Valvoline Global is not an isolated loss. Tempur Sealy absorbed Mattress Firm, became Somnigroup, and is putting its corporate headquarters in Dallas–Fort Worth. Lexmark, the business IBM left behind, was bought by Xerox and has been shedding Lexington workers ever since. Fazoli’s, ceremonial headquarters on Palumbo Drive shut down all but one Lexington locations. And for manufacturing, Trane took 600 jobs off Mercer Road and moved them to South Carolina. 

One may have been a warning shot that our local and state leaders are not serving the major employers; all of them abandoning Lexington show that our leaders no longer prioritize or respect them as the major economic engines they are and could have been. 

Though Louisville has lost Papa John’s to co-headquarter in Atlanta and KFC headquarters in Texas The General Assembly invested over a billion dollars in Louisville for “infrastructure, public safety, economic development, the arts, and other community priorities.” Lexington was only allocated $57 million by the state, for every seventeen dollars Louisville got, Lexington got $1. 

Lexington’s Affordable Housing and Homelessness Fund carries $9.4 million, set by ordinance at one percent of the prior year’s recurring revenue. The Lexington Economic Development Fund known as the JOBS Fund, is $720,154. Two years ago it was $2.87 million. Lexington cut it by three-quarters and then flat-lined it. The budget reveals we are not prioritizing the attraction and retention of economic engines, even though the most sustainable way to make housing feel more affordable to everyone is through community investment in stronger jobs for everyone. 

Previously, working with economic development departments in Texas, I see why household names chose Texas communities, and no, it was not just the taxes. The local leaders showed how serious they are about their future by not waiting on a site selector’s Request for Proposals but rather proactively sending their staff, elected officials and consultants all across the country and globe to meet and court executives; hosting major brands and developers in their communities to show off the best of what they have; working regionally to put their money where their mouth is and it worked. 

For years, I would eagerly share strategies from back home to lackluster interest, or recently bring great potential quality employers to officials in Lexington and not get responses for months after repeated calls and messages,

Those losses turned into gains for other counties in Kentucky. The mega-corporate losses we are witnessing are not a surprise based on first-hand experience. 

Many have shared the same relationship advice with me that if you never stop pursuing your spouse after marriage, they will never look anywhere else but you. I see a lot of parallels of that dating advice in attracting corporate relocations and catching the eye of site selectors to choose Lexington but no intentionality to continuing the pursuit decades after the ribbon cutting on headquarters. 

Our community leaders need to step up to the pursuit or move on, like these major companies moved on. Lexington families and neighborhoods will begin to face the fact that we are no longer a city and must retreat to town status and give up the advantages that come with cities.