The workwear brand Dickies is shedding its Texas headquarters and moving to Costa Mesa, part of restructuring and cost-savings measures by its parent company, VF Corp., which manages Vans and several other well-known lifestyle brands.
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The move is expected next spring as Denver-based VF further consolidates its real estate portfolio. The company has targeted more than $300 million in cost savings for its fiscal year ending in March 2025, according to a company spokesman and recent corporate filings.
As part of the plan announced Nov. 22, Dickies will share headquarters space with Vans at its Costa Mesa hub just off the 405 Freeway at 1588 South Coast Drive. The combined companies hope to create a campus where “creativity and best practice sharing can thrive through great collaboration and connections,” according to a written statement by VF spokeswoman Ashley McCormack.
The relocation of Dickies, which VF bought in October 2017 for $820 million, will affect 120 jobs in Texas, McCormack said.
The company did not respond to questions asking how many workers might be hired in Costa Mesa.
The relocation of Dickies, which was founded in 1922 in Forth Worth, is expected to be completed by May 2025, McCormack said.
The move to California runs concurrent to other big shifts to Texas.
Though they’ve left sizeable footprints behind, big-name corporations moving headquarters out of California in recent years included oil company Chevron to Houston from San Ramon, and Elon Musk moving Tesla’s base to Austin from Palo Alto. Others exiting California have been commercial real estate brokerage CBRE, the database management company Oracle and computer maker Hewlett-Packard.
The Dickies move to Orange County comes as VF struggles to execute a turnaround plan amid declining revenue across its brands.
The Dickies workwear brand has evolved over the last century from a low-budget, bib-overall manufacturer with a line of affordable safety footwear, work trousers and jeans, to a hipster’s must-have clothing for skating or going out on the town.
At an investor day event held in Denver on Oct. 30, VF CEO Bracken Darrell warned cost-cutting was coming as the company planned a return to growth.
On Nov. 13, S&P Global downgraded VF’s credit rating to junk status because of ongoing revenue declines in its top four brands: Dickies, The North Face, Timberland and Vans.
In its second fiscal quarter ending Sept. 28, Dickies saw revenue fall 11% to $152 million from $171 million in the same year-earlier period. The revenue drop was among the largest in VF’s portfolio.
In the same quarter, Vans saw revenue fall 11% to $667 million, The North Face fall 3% to $1.09 billion, and Timberland fall 3% to $475 million.
In October, VF named Chris Goble as global brand president for Dickies. Goble, formerly chief product officer and general manager of Gap North America, replaced Todd Dalhausser, who had previously moved to the outdoor brand The North Face.
Goble, who could not be reached for comment, also held previous posts with clothing brands Old Navy and Levi Strauss & Co, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Dickies, the workwear brand founded 102 years ago in Fort Worth, Texas, is moving its headquarters from the Lone Star state to Orange County, where its other brand Vans is located. Seen here is one of the company’s historic storefronts in Fort Worth. (Photo courtesy of Google street view)
In a matter related to the restructuring, business unit VF Outdoor LLC issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, also called a WARN notice, indicating plans on Nov. 15 to close a distribution center in Martinsville, Virginia. The closure is expected to affect 242 employees by Jan. 19, according to WARN filing with the Virginia Employment Commission.
A WARN notice related to the 120 affected jobs with Dickies in Texas could not be found with the Texas Workforce Commission.
VF shares rose 66 cents, or 3.5%, to close Monday at $20.43.