(Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo)
Over the last two years, about 660 companies have moved 765 operations out of California, and according to a new report, Dallas-Fort Worth has gained from many of the relocations.
According to company relocation analyst Joe Vranich, chairman of Spectrum Location Services, the exits from the Golden State since January 2018 now cover corporate headquarters, manufacturing facilities, data centers, testing centres, technology and development centers and a few warehouses.
In North Texas, coffee company Nuzee said it would shift its corporate headquarters from Vista, California, to Plano in a Regulatory report last week.
The new site "will act as our new single serve pour-over corporate headquarters and co-packing," Nuzee said in the report.
"Texas gives us a variety of benefits compared to our Vista facility in California, including lower operating costs, lower freight costs for most states, and better economies of scale," the filing said.
Because of the generally weak and lower taxes, more affordable property and housing, lower expenses, central location, easy access to an international airport and other important factors, California's large, mid-sized and small businesses are moving their regional or corporate headquarters to North Texas.
McKesson Corp. (NYSE: MCK), one of the country's largest pharmaceutical companies, moved its headquarters from San Francisco to the Las Colinas area earlier this year.
A retailer of convenience stores and listed in the Fortune 500, Core-Mark Holdings Co. is shifting its headquarters to Westlake, also from San Francisco.
In July, Chip 1 Exchange, an electronic component distributor, said it was moving from Orange County to Fort Worth its U.S. headquarters and logistics operations.
Vranich pointed out that other California-based companies choose to expand in Texas rather than in the Golden State.
For example, San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc. recently announced plans to establish a major hub with at least 3,000 employees in Dallas. The project of $125 million will make Dallas the largest hub outside the Bay Area of the company.
While news reports tend to focus on corporations moving hundreds of jobs from California, with little or no public notice, most departures from small to medium-sized enterprises occur, Vranich said.
According to the American Community Survey of the Census Bureau, California lost an estimated 190,000 residents in 2018, a 38 percent increase from a year earlier.
Texas remains the most popular destination for Californians living in another state, with 86,200 Golden State residents moving to Texas in 2018, according to data released by the American Community Survey on Oct. 31.
