The 51 largest apparel companies based in Orange County employed a local workforce of 10,148, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
That’s about the same as last year, though companywide employment spiked 4.9% to more than 44,000 overall.
Fourteen companies added workers to their OC operations, five made cuts, three kept their workforces flat, and 29 were Business Journal estimates. The list ranks companies by employee count.
Stance Inc. posted the biggest increase in employee count—356%—for a total of 114 at its San Clemente-based headquarters and an additional two workers companywide, bringing it from No. 35 on last year’s list to No. 24 this year.
The company recently signed a licensing agreement to become the official sock brand for the NBA and raised $50 million from private investors in March to expand into underwear and open six company-owned stores in the next 12 months.
“Our people and our culture have fueled our business and brought us so many amazing opportunities,” Stance President John Wilson wrote in an email. “I’m in awe of the crew we’ve got and how passionate they are about what we do, and grateful we’ve been able to do all of this where our roots are planted.”
Other notable entries on the Business Journal’s list include:
• Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc., which led the pack with an estimated 2,219 employees working here and 4,315 companywide, flat from last year. The sunglasses and apparel maker, part of Italy-based Luxottica Group SPA, recently selected Raj Manufacturing LLC in Tustin to develop, manufacture and distribute its women’s swimwear around the world.
• Raj ranked No. 6 on the list with 401 employees in Orange County and 522 companywide, the same as it had last year.
• No. 2, St. John Knits International Inc., has an estimated 866 employees at its Irvine headquarters and 1,300 companywide. The high-end knitwear maker parted ways with Chief Executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck late last year, and Executive Chairman Bernd Beetz took over on an interim basis.
• Quiksilver Inc. in Huntington Beach, No. 4, reduced its local workforce by 23% to 540. Its companywide employee count dropped 3% to 6,100. The numbers include former Chairman and Chief Executive Andy Mooney, who was fired by the company’s board of directors in April. Quiksilver founder Bob McKnight reassumed the chairman’s post, and Pierre Agnes moved from the president’s post to replace Mooney in the chief executive spot.
• Asics America Corp. moved its 297 employees—11% less than it had a year ago—to bigger headquarters, also in Irvine. The footwear and apparel manufacturer, which ranks No. 12, has an estimated 5,906 workers companywide. Asics, part of Japan-based Asics Corp., surpassed $1 billion in net sales last year for the first time.
• Rip Curl Inc. in Costa Mesa added 25 workers to its payroll for a total of 175, up 17%. The companywide count, which includes the brand’s operations in Brazil, Israel and South Africa, rose 5% for a total of 1,150 employees.
• Rip Curl shares the No. 17 spot with Irvine-based Fox Head Inc., which shed about 15 local employees. Private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners in Palo Alto acquired a majority stake in Fox Head in December in a deal estimated at more than $200 million.
• Cypress-based Hybrid Apparel was also among the shareholders in the Fox Head deal. The supplier of branded, licensed and private-label apparel placed No. 7 on the list with 400 employees here, a 7% increase.
Gorjana & Griffin
• Gorjana & Griffin Inc. in Laguna Beach added six positions for a total of 33, primarily to service its Nordstrom Inc. account. The fashion jewelry company, which placed No. 36, “rolled into” the Seattle-based department store chain’s “all 120 doors” last month after a 30-store trial period that “went very well,” said Jason Griffin Reidel, who cofounded the company with his wife, designer Gorjana Reidel.
• 5.11 Tactical—a newcomer to the list at No. 25 (see related story, page 1)—employs 109 at its headquarters in Irvine and 555 companywide. Those numbers are up 9% and 3%, respectively.
The majority of firms featured on the list—35—had an estimated $11 billion in sales for their latest fiscal year, an increase of 2% over the year-earlier period. Other companies didn’t disclose revenue figures.
