Firm Plans to Expand, Add Up to 300 Jobs : Simi Valley: Bugle Boy focuses on its warehouse and distribution center and may add an outlet store.

A major clothing manufacturer headquartered in Simi Valley plans to expand its warehouse and distribution center and add a factory outlet store in the city, a move expected to create 200 to 300 jobs, company officials said.

Bugle Boy Industries has leased a vacant 237,000-square-foot building about a mile from the company’s existing national headquarters, said Peter Mow, project manager with Calterra Development Inc., a Bugle Boy affiliate.

“It’s great to have a local firm that elects to expand here in the city,” Deputy City Manager Jim Hansen said. “It’s a good sign.”

According to spokesman Arnold Karr, Bugle Boy Chairman William Mow said the $2.5-million expansion reflects the company’s confidence in the economy and in its casual clothing lines for boys, men and women.

Karr said Mow believes the recession is over, allowing the company to reposition for growth.

Bugle Boy has signed a five-year, nine-month lease with two five-year options on a building at Easy Street and Shasta Way, said Peter Mow, a nephew of the company’s chairman and founder.

While spokesman Karr cautioned that the company has not definitely decided to go ahead with the factory outlet portion of the project, Peter Mow and city officials said the store was part of the package.

An ambitious schedule calls for the building to open by July 1, Mow said. It would join the company’s two distribution centers and administrative offices, which total 325,000 square feet in Simi Valley.

“The good news is that this means (Bugle Boy is) doing relatively well and providing a good use for what, up to now, has been a big empty building,” Mayor Greg Stratton said.

To build up its economic base, the city in recent months has used financial incentives to lure companies from other areas to relocate in Simi Valley, but concessions are not part of the Bugle Boy plans, city and company officials said.

About 85% of space in the facility would be used for a warehouse for the company’s distribution system, meaning most of the new jobs would be in shipping and receiving. The remainder would house offices and the outlet store.

“Would we ever wholeheartedly welcome that,” said Nancy Bender, executive director of the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce. “It’s very welcome news indeed.”

Bugle Boy last year proposed to build a distribution center and full-scale outlet mall with 16 stores on 33 acres at the west end of Moorpark, but the plans were halted by the ailing economy, Peter Mow said.

“We’ve been anxious to attract more commercial business to the city to get the tax base up,” Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason said. “Of course it is a disappointment.”

Plans for improving the Simi Valley building are expected to be submitted in the next week. Bugle Boy moved its headquarters to Simi Valley from Chatsworth in 1989.