EMERYVILLE (BCN) — The owner of Jamba Juice, which makes specialty beverage and food items including fruit smoothies, will move its headquarters from Emeryville
to a Dallas suburb over the next six months, the company announced.
Jamba Inc. chief executive David Pace said in a press release and a regulatory filing that the high cost of doing business in the Bay Area is a large reason why the company is moving to Frisco, Texas.
In the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pace said, “We believe this move will better position us as we focus on our core strategies. Specifically, the move will allow us to reduce costs, attract and retain talent and provide a more central location for our market expansion plans.”
The company said in its press release that the move “is designed to better position the company for sustainable, long-term growth and thus better serve Jamba’s franchisees and customers.”
Jamba said Frisco will serve as headquarters for the company’s operations, business development, sales and marketing, finance, supply chain, technology, human relations and other corporate functions.
The company said its lease in Emeryville, where it has been headquartered since 2006, is expiring at the end of the year and it will close the Emeryville office after the transition to Texas is completed.
Jamba said the move will affect about 120 employees in Emeryville. Jamba said that after the move it will employ about 100 people in Frisco, which will be a mixture of employees who relocate from Emeryville and hew hires in Texas.
Jamba said it has 1,000 company employees in California and franchisee partners have more than 5,000 employees in 407 stores in the state. The company said it also intends to continue to open new stores and increase jobs in the California market.
Jamba said it has 885 store locations globally, including 68 company-owned and operated stores and 752 franchise-operated stores in the U.S. and 65 franchise-operated international stores.
Pace said, “Jamba has pursued our vision to inspire and simplify healthy living for 26 years, starting with a single juice shop in San Luis Obispo, but as we continue to spread our healthy living mission globally, it has become increasingly clear that a relocation of our support center will better position the company to extend our brand and continue to support our franchise partners for the long term.”
Pace said, “With the pending expiration of our lease in Emeryville at the end of 2016, we explored a number of location options that would offer us competitive operating costs, a region with extensive access to skilled restaurant talent, an attractive cost of living to our current and future team members and a geographical location that facilitates our ability to expand our store base.”
He said, “The state of Texas meets all of these criteria and Frisco is a community committed to healthy living that aligns closely with our overall mission.”
In addition to the relocation announcement, Jamba announced a restructuring of the overall organization and several changes in leadership.