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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Job Declines Continue for Apparel Companies

Local employment was down for the third consecutive year among Orange County’s largest apparel companies.

The 41 firms on our latest rankings reported a combined local workforce of 9,263 employees, down 2% for the 12 months through March, while staffing companywide increased by 3% to 61,043 workers.

Last year, OC-based employment dropped nearly 8% to a combined workforce of 8,175. It should be noted that last year’s list had 51 companies.

The year-over-year increase is largely due to the addition of two large retailers which also make some of their own clothes.

The downward trend has continued for the better part of 20 years. As of 2000, there were more than 17,000 local apparel jobs reported by those on our list.

The list is ranked by OC employment and starting this year, the Business Journal raised the cutoff from at least five employees to 20.

This week’s list saw the addition of three companies:

• Irvine-based retailer Tilly’s Inc. (NYSE: TLYS) placed No. 4 on the list reporting a local workforce of 733 employees, down about 8% year-over-year. Companywide staffing jumped up nearly 20% to 5,600 employees. It also reported a revenue increase of almost 4% to $598 million. The company makes some of the products sold at its stores.

• Pacific Sunwear of California in Anaheim ranked No. 7 with an estimated 350 employees in OC and 8,000 workers companywide.

• No. 35, Merrilee’s Swimwear in Laguna Beach was another addition to the list with 30 employees, local and companywide. The swimsuit maker and retailer opened its first shop in 1977—initially making bikini patterns out of grocery store bags—and is run by mother-daughter duo Merrilee and Felicia Madrigal.

Leaderboard Shuffle

• Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc. remained at No. 1 with 1,400 working here and nearly 3,500 companywide. The sunglasses and apparel maker is part of Italy-based Luxottica Group SPA, which also owns the Chanel, Prada and Ray-Ban brands. It tapped Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in March to promote its sunglasses, including this month’s new Ahyris collection, and its football helmet visors. This spring Mahomes will be featured in videos and in-store campaigns, as well as Oakley’s “Back to Sport” campaign in August.

He’s the first NFL player to get an endorsement deal with the company.

• Huntington Beach-based Boardriders Inc. leapfrogged five spots to No. 2 with a local presence of 800 employees and a total staff of 10,000. It completed its acquisition of Australian-based Billabong International Ltd. last year.

Cuts to the 800-employee figure are coming. Last month state filings showed the company would eliminate 40 positions in Irvine.

• Hybrid Apparel in Cypress fell one spot to No. 3 with an estimated combined workforce of 750 employees. The company, which designs and markets branded, licensed and private label apparel, named Bill Hutchison chief executive in January, four months after founder and former Chief Executive Jarrod Dogan stepped away from his role.

Making Moves

• Another company made changes to its executive team, including a new chief executive, this year. Asics North America, whose domestic operations is based in Irvine and is a unit of Japan-based Asics Group, replaced Chief Executive Gene McCarthy in March with Koichiro Kodama. Kodama, who will split his time between Irvine and Asics’ 19,000-square-foot Boston office, joined the brand in 2016 as vice president of corporate strategy and executive vice president of sales for the Americas region.

The leadership shake-up came after it struggled to gain a foothold among U.S. consumers last year, reporting a 15% revenue decline in the Americas region to about $806 million.

• No. 10, Costa Mesa-based Volcom LLC reported 267 local employees, down nearly 8% from the same period last year, but it boosted its workforce companywide adding 123 employees for a total of 888. Paris-based Kering S.A. sold the skate brand’s intellectual property last month to New York’s Authentic Brands Group. The newly formed entity Liberated Brands will run the company’s operations in the U.S., France, Australia and Japan; and is owned by Volcom’s current management team including Chief Executive Todd Hymel, Chief Operating Officer Brad Holman, Chief Financial Officer Desiree Swanson and Chief Marketing Officer Ryan Immegart while Authentic Brands Group took a minority stake in Liberated.

• The biggest gainer on the list was Australian surfwear maker, No. 12, Rip Curl Inc., whose U.S. headquarters is in Brea. It grew its local staff by 40% to 257 employees while adding one employee companywide for a total of 365.

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