Vans Leases Out Orange Facilities, Reports Expected Rise in Earnings

ORANGE —  Completing its pullout from Orange County, Vans Inc. said Monday it has leased its facilities in Orange and will relocate its headquarters and distribution center to Santa Fe Springs next spring.

The sneaker maker, which was founded in Orange County in 1966, had employed as many as 2,000 workers in Orange at one time. But last summer, the company shuttered its manufacturing plant there, laying off about 1,000 people, as it shifted part of the operations to a newer factory in Vista in San Diego County.

In a news release Monday, Vans also announced that it expects to report strong revenue and earnings in the latest quarter, reflecting a comeback from struggles with foreign competition and labor problems.

Gary H. Schoenfeld, Vans’ president and chief operating officer, said the upcoming headquarters move would not result in any layoffs. Vans still has about 100 employees in Orange, he said.

Vans originally planned to sell its Orange plant and offices. But Schoenfeld said the company found it much easier to lease the 175,000-square-foot site. He declined to identify the tenants.

Vans will move into a new, leased facility in Santa Fe Springs with roughly the same space. The building also will house the company’s warehousing operations, which are now in the city of Industry.

Officials in Orange, where Vans had long been the city’s largest manufacturing employer, had expected Vans’ departure.

For Vans, the move marks the closing of 30 years in Orange County, a period as tumultuous as the industry’s fashions.

Founded in 1966 as Van Doren Rubber Co., Vans burst into national prominence after teenagers saw the company’s black-and-white checkered shoes in the 1982 hit movie, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” But not long after the fad passed, the company fell into bankruptcy, only to be revived by investors who took the company public.

The company’s more recent struggles included immigration raids and the Teamsters Union, which attempted to organize Vans’ mostly Latino work force in Orange.

Schoenfeld, the Vans executive, said the company’s latest resurgence reflects a focused marketing program and new products.

In the release, Vans said revenue in its first fiscal quarter ended this month should be more than 50% higher than the $28.4 million reported in the same period a year earlier.