Orange County’s largest apparel makers slowed hiring over the past year. The 54 companies on this week’s Business Journal list, which range from luxury to action-sports manufacturers, combined for a 5% year-over-year decline in local workforce for the 12 months through April.
Seven companies added workers to OC operations, eight made cuts, five kept employee counts steady, and numbers for the remaining 34 are Business Journal estimates. Together, they employed a local workforce of 8,593, down from 9,092 a year earlier.
• Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc. continues to lead the pack with 1,400 employees, despite a 22% decrease in staffing levels here. The sunglasses and apparel maker announced plans in July to cut 417 positions by the end of March, including in customer service, marketing, apparel design, retail and sales operations. The staff changes came as its Italy-based parent, Luxottica Group SPA, completed Oakley’s integration into its operations; it took over the brand’s optical, or prescription, and fashion frames business last January.
The brand’s “sports” offerings are now “part of the Luxottica wholesale family” and benefit from “the power that we can have in negotiations” as a part of a “larger family,” company officials said. The wholesale division reports to the parent company’s New York office, and operation of its 290 stores is handled from Mason, Ohio.
Luxottica in January said it plans to combine operations with Essilor International SA in France. The $49 billion deal, on track to close by year-end, created EssilorLuxottica, with revenue of about $16 billion and more than 140,000 employees.
• Hybrid Apparel, No. 2, has about 750 employees at its headquarters in Cypress, a 70% increase from a year earlier. The company designs and manufactures licensed and private-label apparel, as well as its own brands. Private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners in Palo Alto invested in the firm in 2014.
• Vans Inc. in Cypress, No. 4 on the list, has about 500 local workers and plans to move them to a new headquarters in Costa Mesa this summer. Other changes at the popular footwear and apparel brand include the departure of Kevin Bailey, who oversaw Vans’ upward trajectory to $2.3 billion in sales during a 7-year stint as president. Bailey is on to the president’s role for the Asia-Pacific region of Vans’ parent company, Greensboro, N.C.-based VF Corp., and was succeeded by Doug Palladini.
• RAJ Swim LLC in Tustin, No. 5, retained its employee count at about 400. That includes three recent hires: President Brenda West, the first person outside of the swimwear maker’s founding family to hold the position; Director of Design and Merchandising Diana Munoz; and Vice President of Digital and Integrated Marketing Renee Borsack. All three previously worked at Cypress-based Manhattan Beachwear Inc., No. 8 on the list with about 300 employees.
RAJ, which makes swimwear under the Luxe by Lisa Vogel, Athena, and Basta Surf labels, introduced “eco-friendly millennial brand” VYB this year. It also holds licenses for Nautica, Ella Moss, Splendid and Reef.
• Costa Mesa-based Volcom LLC, No. 10, cut its workforce about 20% to 289 employees in Orange County and 765 companywide. Departures include Kevin Meehan, who left the president’s role to join Billabong Group’s RVCA in Costa Mesa as global general manager. The brand posted $256.8 million in revenue last year, down 13.5% from 2015, according to Kering SA, its Paris-based parent.
• St. John Knits International Inc., No. 3, next month plans to cut 130 jobs at its facilities in Irvine, bringing its total here to about 600. It recently “adjusted a significant portion” of its manufacturing process. The change “strategically situates the company to meet the future needs of our consumers,” the company said in a statement.
• Alstyle in Anaheim, No. 16, has about 184 employees. Midlothian, Texas-based Ennis Inc. sold the private-label T-shirt manufacturer in June to Canadian T-shirt giant Gildan Activewear Inc. for $110 million. The deal came shortly after Ennis backed out of an $88 million deal with Alstyle Operations LLC, a company set up by Ennis’ former chief technology officer and apparel division vice president, Irshad Ahmad.
• Irvine-based 5.11 Tactical, No. 20, increased its employee count 11% to 123. The apparel and gear designer outfitting soldiers, firefighters and police officers, is growing its 13-store retail lineup this year at a pace of one or two additions a month. The company was sold last year for $401.8 million to Compass Diversified Holdings in Westport, Conn.
• Newcomers to the list include No. 46, Combatant Gentlemen in Irvine, No. 33, Stokehouse Unlimited LLC in Aliso Viejo, and No. 15, Boot Barn Holdings Inc. in Irvine.
