Pink Dot Brings Offices to County
The company that eliminated late-night trips to the convenience store for many Angelenos is moving its headquarters to Camarillo on Monday.
But Ventura County residents won’t get to indulge any couch-potato inclinations just yet. Pink Dot, the Los Angeles-based grocery delivery service, is setting up corporate headquarters, but says Ventura County is just not crowded enough to begin offering its services here.
Karen Sophiea, chief Pink Dot marketing officer, said Ventura County does not have the density necessary to reach a large number of people in a 30-minute driving distance. Pink Dot markets itself as being able to deliver an assortment of products, from Starbucks coffee to toilet paper to fresh-made turkey club sandwiches, in 30 minutes or less. Customers are charged prices comparable with a large supermarket, plus a $2.99 fee.
The move from Los Angeles is taking place primarily because the company’s top executives and employees see Ventura County as a better place to live and work. Two executives live in the area and cite lower rents, qualified job applicants and less traffic as reasons for the 12-year-old company’s move.
“We were overcrowded and our facilities were not set up to be offices,” Chief Executive Officer Dan Frederickson said of the company’s former South Carthay location.
The company has grown so much that Frederickson is looking to expand Pink Dot nationally.
“We look at ourselves as a real company now and it’s cheaper for our growth plans to be in Camarillo,” he said.
Pink Dot employs about 340 people, many of them drivers, warehouse workers and mid-level managers who will remain in Los Angeles. About 20 employees in higher-paying administrative jobs will move to Camarillo. Frederickson predicted the operation in Camarillo would double in size during the next year.
Sophiea said the company is looking to hire five to 10 employees immediately from the Ventura County area for jobs involving marketing, business management, financial analysis and Web design.
Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., said it is not unusual for corporations to move their headquarters closer to the home territory of the chief executive officer.
“But it’s kind of an interesting move because they are moving away from their prime territory,” Kyser said. “It’s probably good news for some of the workers, because it gets the management out of their hair.”
Frederickson said the distance between the Camarillo headquarters and the nearest distribution center, located in Van Nuys, is not a problem.
“I don’t think the proximity hurts us at all,” he said. “As we become nationwide we won’t be able to be close to all of them.”
Pink Dot, which fills orders 18 hours a day, has nine distribution centers throughout Southern California. A central telephone bank receives orders from customers or over the Internet at www.pinkdot.com and routes them to the closest outlet center where food and other items are quickly assembled in a shopping basket.
Drivers then map the quickest route to the customer’s home or business and zoom off in a Pinky Mobile, a Volkswagen Bug with a funny twirling hat, bug eyes and a tail.
Kyser said he is sorry to see the company leave Los Angeles but noted that Ventura County increasingly is a destination for Los Angeles residents weary of urban life.
“We are seeing a lot of movement into the Ventura area,” he said. “It’s especially attractive for creative types. It has a very nice ambience--the light, the mountains, the plains, the roadside vegetable stands.”
Pink Dot will be moving to a 6,000-square-foot office at 751 E. Daily Drive. The three-year lease is valued at $250,000, according to Frederickson.
Camarillo officials are heralding the company’s arrival.
“We hope they grow like crazy, because they are a good clean industry and that’s what I like to bring in,” said Jim Jevens, economic development consultant for Camarillo. “They have higher-paying jobs and they don’t clog our streets or our air.”
So what about bringing that speedy delivery service to Ventura County along with the corporate bigwigs? Jevens said he has high hopes.
“I would frankly hope that in time, they would bring that type of service to Ventura County. We have a lot of soccer moms and two-income households,” he said. “These are services that people can afford.”
Jevens said he disagrees that Camarillo, and other Ventura County cities, do not hold Pink Dot potential.
“They need to think in terms of open space,” Jevens said. “Camarillo has 62,000 people. There’s room to grow. A service like Pink Dot is not that far away.”
