XPost: alt.politics.clinton, alt.society.liberalism, alt.impeach.obama   
   XPost: tx.general   
   From: worthless@latimes.com   
      
   More than 25 years after the first Jamba Juice shop opened in   
   San Luis Obispo, the owner of the smoothie company announced   
   plans to move its headquarters from California to Texas within   
   eight months.   
      
   Jamba Inc. will close its Emeryville, Calif., office and   
   establish a new corporate home in Frisco, Texas, about 30 miles   
   north of Dallas. In a statement, Chief Executive David Pace said   
   Jamba was looking for places that had “competitive operating   
   costs,” access to “skilled restaurant talent” and an “attractive   
   cost of living,” along with a central location for further   
   expansion.   
      
   “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,” Pace said.   
      
   The company's lease in Emeryville is set to expire at the end of   
   the year.   
      
   The move will affect about 120 employees in Jamba's Emeryville   
   location. After the company moves, Jamba said it expects to   
   employ about 100 employees in Frisco, a mix of San Francisco Bay   
   Area transplants and newly hired Texas workers.   
      
   As of December, Jamba had 818 stores across the United States.   
   The publicly traded company said it has 1,000 employees in   
   California alone. There are more than 5,000 workers at franchise   
   locations across the state.   
      
   Jamba will follow longtime Southern California burger chain   
   Carl's Jr. in moving its corporate home out of the Golden State.   
   In March, CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., which owns Carl's Jr.   
   and St. Louis-based Hardee's, said it would move its Carpenteria   
   headquarters to Franklin, Tenn., next year. The company said the   
   move was intended to consolidate the two chains' headquarters in   
   one location.   
      
   As a whole, the restaurant sector is struggling to deal with   
   higher labor costs. If those chains can't pass those costs on to   
   consumers, which many have been unable to do, they have to   
   reduce costs in other parts of the business, said Nick Setyan,   
   senior vice president of equity research at Wedbush Securities.   
      
   One option is re-franchising, a model that Jamba and Carl's Jr.   
   have embraced over the last few years. As of March, there were   
   68 company-owned and operated Jamba Juices and 752 franchised   
   stores in the U.S.   
      
   “You're seeing them re-franchise in order to have a lower cost   
   and a more predictable operating model,” Setyan said. “If you're   
   trying to cut costs, then you have to look at it across the   
   entire business and look at your headquarters. If that results   
   in lower costs, that's always on the table.”   
      
   Thanks in part to the success of the technology industry, labor   
   and real estate in the Bay Area come at a high price.   
      
   Staying in the Bay Area can be lucrative and valuable for   
   companies in the innovation sector since employees in the area   
   tend to be more creative and productive, said Enrico Moretti, an   
   economics professor at UC Berkeley.   
      
   “They cost more, but they generate more,” he said.   
      
   But for companies in more traditional industries, such as Jamba,   
   Moretti said the Bay Area's benefits may not be worth the   
   expense.   
      
   Jamba is just the latest California company to announce plans to   
   relocate to Texas.   
      
   In 2014, Toyota Motor Corp. said it would move its North   
   American headquarters to Plano, Texas, from Torrance over the   
   next three years.   
      
   That same year, longtime Los Angeles-based energy giant   
   Occidental Petroleum announced that it was relocating its   
   headquarters to Houston and would spin off its California assets   
   into a separate company.   
      
   And nearly two dozen Bay Area tech companies have made the move   
   to Texas since 2014, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.   
      
   Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once touted the Texas Enterprise   
   Fund and other cash incentives, along with local property tax   
   breaks, as important for enticing companies to move. Toyota was   
   offered a $40-million grant when the automaker announced its   
   move, though the company said incentives had little, if   
   anything, to do with the decision.   
      
   Jamba was also offered a Texas Enterprise Fund grant of   
   $800,000. The company said incentives were not a driver in the   
   move to Texas.   
      
   Other factors, such as the low corporate tax rate and no   
   personal income tax, could also be advantages for companies   
   looking to move to the Lone Star State.   
      
   Lower corporate taxes mean higher company profits, but possibly   
   more important is the income tax aspect, Moretti said. Without   
   raising wages, employees can see an increase in their pay, he   
   said.   
      
   samantha.masunaga@latimes.com   
      
   http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jamba-juice-20160506-snap-   
   story.html   
        
      
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