Sutter's Jeans Maker Moves to Sausalito, Opens D.C. in Laredo
South San Francisco-based denim manufacturer San Francisco Jean Company, which produces the Sutter’s and Laura C. denim labels, recently announced plans to move the company’s design and production offices across the bay to Sausalito, and its distribution center to a base in Laredo, Texas, next month.
Tony Patella, managing director of the company, said several factors contributed to his decision: the still-sky-high real estate prices, the commute time for most of the company’s employees and the sheer pleasure of working in the picturesque New England-style town.
“We can all get there so much faster than an office space on south of Market [Street], where despite dot-com failures, prices are still sky high,” said Patella. “Plus, this move is more of a quality-of-life thing. Who wouldn’t prefer working in Manhattan Beach as opposed to, say, downtown? It’s just a better place.”
Patella said he’s hoping the new two-story office space, which faces the harbor, will serve as a “much more inspiring” location for his designers.
Moving the company’s distribution center to Laredo will be a practical move in more ways than one, according to Patella.
Much of the company’s line is produced across the border in Mexico, and the Laredo distribution center serves as a logical hub between Mexico and retailers on the eastern half of the United States, where Patella said 75 percent of his business is based.
“It’s not only cheaper for us without the trucking fees from Mexico to San Francisco, but our stores will get their shipments, at the very least, five days faster,” said Patella. “So the bottom line is that we all benefit from this move.
