5.11 Tactical has their corporate headquarters in Modesto but in the summer they moved 40 jobs from Modesto to a development center in Irvine
. The operations center is still in Modesto and only those 40 positions were moved to this new development center.
The companys CEO stated that the move was done in order to facilitate a better environment for product designers and developers so that they could delve deeper into their creative talent by pooling all persons in the same physical location. As such it was the persons with jobs within the product management, product development, e-commerce and marketing departments that were moved to Irvine. The Sales, Customer Service, Logistics, Finance and Operations staff stayed behind in Modesto and so did the warehouse and the custom shop.
The whole idea of the change is for the company to be able to drive more innovation. The CEO who already lives in Irvine and who has lived there for 15 years states that he does most of his work there and returns to the Modesto office every other week at minimum.
The CEO of the Stanislaus Economic Development & Workforce Alliance notes that he was sad to see jobs leave the area as in March there was a 17.4% jobless rate. He further goes on to state that it is sad to see some of the jobs go since 5.11 Tactical was born in Modest and has grown there ever since.
Though a majority of the workers transferred to Irvine there was still room for more new workers and since Irvine is home to major apparel companies such as Hurley, Volcom, Quiksilver and Oakley there were a number of young and talented designers were eager job takers. This benefits the company since in Modesto they would have design positions open for months without being able to find the right individual for the job.
With operations in Irvine the company is now able to work with bigger law enforcement departments that are found in Irvine, Los Angeles and Anaheim. It also benefits the Modesto office since some of their finance department has been working across the road for a couple years now. Now with departments moving the entire finance department will be in one general space which will allow the work flow to be more cohesive.
They had no plans of downsizing and so the employees who did not move to Irvine were offered job positions in the Modesto office though they may have been offered a different role. Just a small amount of individuals ended up losing their jobs. Davin noted that change is always tough but overall it benefits the company and the consumers they serve.
The Irvine development is home to the first prototype facility that 5.11 Tactical has had in house. This means changes to the 5.11 Tactical lines of products. The company is slated to launch fitness and hunting products in the early part of 2013. This will really open the consumer base of the company as now there will be more regular individuals purchasing, wearing and using 5.11 products.