Orange County Container Corp. is moving its Zapp Packaging unit from Brea to its headquarters in City of Industry.
About 75 workers are making the move to City of Industry, which is just beyond the county line from Brea in Los Angeles County. Four people were laid off in the move, according to the company.
“We wanted to save on freight costs,” said Dennis Hegedus, Orange County Container’s lawyer.
The company, a maker of corrugated boxes and other packaging, has yearly sales of about $355 million, according to Hegedus.
It became a part owner of Zapp in 2002. Orange County Container bought the rest of the company earlier this year.
Zapp makes packages used for displays in stores. They’re specially made with colors and cutouts to highlight products.
The company leases a 97,000-square-foot site in Brea that used to be the home of Krause’s Furniture, which went out of business in 2002.
Zapp signed a 10-year lease for the building with San Francisco’s AMB Property Corp. in 2004 and is looking to sublease it, according to Hegedus.
Orange County Container has about 2,400 workers in 12 locations in Southern California, Mexico and China.
Its City of Industry building is 279,000 square feet. Some of its biggest customers are the U.S. Postal Service and Corona-based Hansen Natural Corp.
Orange County Container was able to move Zapp to City of Industry after getting space as part of deal it made for Performance Sheets LLC.
Performance Sheets was bought in a partnership with Corrugated Services of Texas from Temple Inland Inc., also of Texas, in 2006.
Orange County Container was given tax incentives from City of Industry to keep people employed at Performance Sheets, according to Hegedus.
Huntington Beach native Michael Feterik built Orange County Container from scratch in 1981 with four employees and a rental truck.
From 2001 to 2005, Feterik owned the Calgary Stampeders, a Canadian Football League team.
