Patagonia to Contain Its Growth : Environment: The firm may move its distribution center to keep its work force in Ventura at 350.

Patagonia, one of Ventura’s largest employers, will direct any future growth to locations outside the city to help preserve the environment, a company spokesman said Thursday.

The announcement was made after another company official said Patagonia planned to relocate its warehouse and distribution center to an unspecified out-of-state location in the summer of 1992.

“We’ll grow out of this building real soon,” Marty Chapman, Patagonia’s mail-order shipping manager, said of his division’s facility in the 4800 block of Colt Street. “Our ballpark moving date is the summer of ’92.”

But company spokesman Kevin Sweeney said the final decision on relocating the warehouse division had not been made, and that--despite any relocation--Patagonia would continue to employ 350 people in Ventura.

“If we continue expanding, we would move part of our operations to Oregon or Montana, to kick ourselves back to the 350-employee level,” he said. “We don’t want to be responsible for excessive pollution.”

Patagonia, a leading outdoor and camping clothing manufacturer with a nationwide distribution network, long has championed environmental causes. In its advertisements, the company promotes environmental concerns and donates a small share of its profits to environmental causes.

Company sales ballooned from just over $4 million in 1981 to $74 million in the past fiscal year. Current projections place company sales at $92 million for 1990, Sweeney said.

Sweeney could not provide figures on how much Patagonia’s labor force has grown over the years, but he said it has increased at about the same rate as the company’s sales. The firm has 372 employees, including 50 positions added last year, he said.

According to city Revitalization Agency figures, in March, 1989, Patagonia was Ventura’s second-largest industrial company. Texaco Oil Co. was the city’s largest industrial employer. The county of Ventura, with 2,100 workers, is the city’s largest overall employer.

Chapman said the distribution plant’s 98 employees were informed of Patagonia’s intentions to relocate during recent meetings with management. “I think the majority is happy and willing to move with us,” he said.

If Patagonia decides to relocate the warehouse, it will be outside California, Sweeney said, since employees of the division are among the firm’s lowest paid and find it difficult to buy houses in the state.

And by not allowing the Ventura operation to continue growing, “the feel of a small company” will be preserved, Sweeney said.

Patagonia would only move out of Ventura altogether, he said, if the city reverses its slow-growth philosophy.

In November, the company backed three pro-environment candidates who won overwhelming victories to give the council a slow-growth majority. Besides endorsing the three, Patagonia donated $5,000 to each of their campaigns and assigned Sweeney to act as their full-time political adviser.

Reaction among City Council members to Patagonia’s plans to freeze its growth level in Ventura were mixed. Longtime Councilman John McWherter said he would regret the loss of potential new jobs for Ventura if Patagonia expanded elsewhere.

“I think it’s too bad,” he said. “We have an unemployed population, we have people graduating from schools who need work, we have people here who have to commute to Los Angeles because they can’t find work here.”

But Councilman Gary Tuttle, elected with Patagonia’s backing, applauded the wisdom of maintaining the company at its current staffing level.

“By not growing here, Patagonia is being consistent with its philosophy and maintaining its beliefs. I’d hate to see them cut back, but I think their present size is just right.”

Bob Gregorchuck, Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce president, said Patagonia has a right to make its own business decisions. “But as a member of this community my interest lies with Ventura, and I have regrets” that the company will not expand locally, he said.

“It’s always sad when we lose business, either because the business has to close, or because it decides to branch out somewhere else.”