lucy activewear moving to California
Posted: February 20, 2010 by Ross
Portland Business Journal - Wendy Culverwell - February 19, 2010
lucy activewear inc. will move its corporate headquarters to San Leandro, Calif., in a move that will eliminate 95 local jobs.
VF Corp. paid $110 million for the home-grown activewear retailer in 2007 and put it under the umbrella of its Outdoor Coalition in late 2009. The move will bring lucy closer to its corporate sibling, North Face, and the head of the VF outdoor group, Steve Rendle.
lucy, one of the smallest companies in the VF family, will benefit from co-locating with North Face, one of the company's largest brands.
In order to bring great expertise, retail development and product development to a great brand like lucy, we need to bring it closer (to North Face), said Cindy Knoebel, vice president for financial and corporate communications for Greensboro, N.C.-based VF (NYSE: VFC).
VF will complete the move by August.
lucy employs 95 in Portland. Knoebel said a dozen will be offered the opportunity to move with the company and the rest will be laid off. The move has been announced to employees, who will be eligible for severance packages.
The move will have no impact on lucy's 65 retail outlets nationwide, Knoebel said.
Former Nike, Inc. executive Sue Levin formed lucy in 1999 to bring activewear to women, an underserved market. The business was originally conceived as an online retailer. It emerged as a traditional bricks-and-mortar retailer in 2001 after the dot-com model failed. It opened its first store in New York City and then in Burlingame, Calif., near San Francisco.
In 2004, the investor group brought in retail veteran Mike Edwards to lead the company and wrote off $45 million in venture funding. The company had 12 stores, two of them failing, and no store presence in its home state.
Under Edwards' leadership, the company finally opened its first Portland location, in the Pearl District, and undertook a national expansion that ultimately grew to 65 locations.
VF purchased the company in 2007 and Edwards soon left.
His successor, Michelle Lantow, left lucy late last year to become CFO of Portland's McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants. Her responsibilities were shifted to Rendle, the outdoor group president.
lucy's departure will leave a significant hole in one of downtown's most distressed buildings, KOIN Center. The company moved its headquarters into a 17,060-square-foot space in early 2008. A broker associated with the deal confirmed that the lease extended longer than two years.
KOIN already has several sizeable vacancies, including 55,000 square feet of former office space. The building recently sold for about $55 million after the California Public Employee Retirement System defaulted on its $70 million note.
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