Ventura County has made two national business headlines in 2022. The first was when Patagonia’s founders sold the company to a climate-focused nonprofit in September. And in December, biotech giant Thousand Oaks Amgen made the biggest acquisition in his 42-year history.
Many big things happened throughout the year, including Oxnard getting part of Amazon’s global expansion, a difficult year for animal rescue Paw Works, and the opening, closing, and reopening of a classic car dealership in Ventura. We had a local story.
Here are some of the star’s biggest business stories of the year.
Chouinard donates Patagonia to fight climate change
If you own a multi-billion dollar company, you have two typical succession planning options. Either sell the company or pass it on to an heir. Climber and outdoorsman Yvonne Chouinard, who founded Ventura-based apparel company Patagonia in 1973, has always been a leader in a different kind of business, but in 2022, he’s taking a different path. He gave up his company.
In September, Chouinard announced that he and his family had donated the company to two nonprofits, Holdfast Collective, which owns 98% of Patagonia and contributes annual profits to combat climate change and its impacts. We donate a portion. The Patagonia Promise Trust owns 2% of the company but owns all of the voting rights and is overseen by Chouinard and his family.
In an open letter announcing the donation, Chouinard wrote, “Earth is now our sole shareholder.”
Patagonia will pay an annual dividend to the Holdfast Collective, which is expected to be approximately $100 million annually. This is in addition to the 1% of annual sales Patagonia already gives to environmental causes.
Patagonia’s annual sales are reported at over $1 billion and the company is valued at about $3 billion. The company is one of Ventura’s largest private employers and has long been active for environmental and social justice in the region.
Holdfast Collective is a non-profit organization, but because it is a non-profit organization with unlimited political contributions, donations are not tax exempt. The New York Times reported that the Chouinard family would pay about $17.5 million in taxes on the transaction. would have been
Amgen Makes Biggest Deal Ever
Amgen, one of the world’s largest biotech companies, has made many big deals in its history, but none bigger than its pending $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics.
Amgen and Horizon announced the deal on December 12 and expects it to close in the first half of 2023. Amgen paid all cash to smaller Horizon and secured $28.5 billion in funding from Bank of America and other lenders.
Horizon specializes in therapeutics for rare autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. His Tepezza, the company’s biggest seller, is on pace to reach his $2 billion in sales in 2022. It is the first approved treatment for thyroid eye disease, an inflammatory eye disease that can cause blindness.
Amgen will pay $116.50 per share to Horizon, which is based in Dublin, Ireland and has multiple offices in the United States. That was about 20% above Horizon’s share price just before the deal was announced and about 48% above its Nov. 29 closing price of $78.76. That was before Horizon revealed it was the subject of a potential takeover offer by Amgen and two other pharmaceutical companies.
Acquisitions like Horizon are a key part of Amgen’s strategy. His 2021 revenue for Amgen was just under $26 billion, about 40% of which was “public.” That means it’s due to products that are set to lose patent protection by 2030, said Salim Saeed, a biotechnology analyst at investment bank Mizuho America. , told Star.
“Acquiring companies like Horizon Therapeutics fills a good chunk of that void,” he said.
Amazon fulfillment center opens in Oxnard
In February, Amazon delivered its first package from its new 2.3 million-square-foot Oxnard Amazon facility just off Rice Avenue and Del Norte Boulevard.
The fulfillment center can process approximately 2 million packages per week destined for the counties of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. Amazon officials said at the time that local residents could expect faster delivery times thanks to the new facility.
When the new center opened, about 60% of the approximately 2,000 Amazon employees were residents of Oxnard. The remaining staff come from other parts of the county and surrounding areas.
In November, Amazon announced plans to lay off about 10,000 employees. This is because some of the growth in online sales due to the pandemic has started to slow. However, while the Oxnard facility appears safe, job cuts will be concentrated in corporate offices and technology departments, the company said.
Crown Classic Cars open, close, reopen
The City of Ventura closed its Johnson Drive Crown Classics and Hot Rod dealerships in July.
When Crown Classics opened in the once-closed Toys R Us in spring 2018, the new business renewed hope in a corridor of retail stores that had been in decline for some time. it will have to wait.
After reading The Star’s article, city officials realized that the auto industry had undergone a major interior renovation. As a result, staff ordered the dealership to stop construction and determined the building to be unsafe just days before the grand opening.
The classic car dealership owned by Bob Crown has since reopened.
Paw Works faces a trying year
Animal rescue Paw Works near Camarillo suffered a series of setbacks in 2022.
In June, a 3-year-old rescue dog named Pretty Girl was stolen. The dog was found along Highway 101 in Newbury Park after being apparently run over by a car, she later died at Poe Her Works Animal Hospital in Oaks.
Then in August the nonprofit announced it would no longer accept dogs and cats because it faced eviction. moved to a larger building in Paw Works’ Thousand Oaks storefront remained open during the challenge.
Shortly thereafter, the organization lost one of its co-founders, Chad Atkins. He died suddenly at his home in Ventura on December 10 of heart failure.
Brittany Vizcarra, director of operations at Paw Works, said that Atkins’ death will not stop the animal rescue mission. Staff rallied over co-founder’s death to promote low-cost birth control and neutering clinics.
Anacapa Brewery closed.Other businesses will suffer the same fate
The Anacapa Brewing Company in Ventura, the oldest brewery in the county, closed in late October. His downtown brewery on Main Street has been in business since June 2000, but has faced obstacles such as labor and food costs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That was the only craft beer name when it opened, but Ventura alone now has nine other brewers.
Anacapa isn’t the only long-standing business to close in 2022.
Other notable Ventura businesses that have closed include Ford in Ventura, which has been in business for 60 years. Village Carousel & Arcade, a popular family attraction in Ventura Harbour. Lights Beautiful is a family owned business selling lighting fixtures since 1968.
this week
- Sunday: Photos for 2022
- Monday: Top Headlines for 2022
- Tuesday: Breaking news for 2022
- Today: The Biggest Business Stories of 2022
- Thursday: General News for 2022
- Friday: Government, Political News for 2022