Moving Earl

Nautica Enterprises Inc. (New York) has announced that the headquarters of its Earl Jean Inc. subsidiary will be relocated from Los Angeles to New York. Its customer service and distribution functions will be integrated into Nautica's existing facility in Martinsville, Va.

The apparel designer and retailer said both moves — which are being led by Bonnie Takhar, who was named president of Earl Jean in October 2002 — are part of its overall efforts “to streamline operations, identify synergies within divisions and leverage existing infrastructure.”

The relocation process will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by the end of the summer. Earl Jean will continue to maintain a West Coast presence through its current showroom in Los Angeles.

“We stand to gain a number of economic and strategic advantages for the Earl Jean brand as a result of this relocation, ” said Takhar. “Significantly, having a presence in New York, the fashion capital of the United States, will provide us a stronger base to not only expand our business domestically, but also on a global level.”

“We believe this consolidation is necessary as it will enable greater growth potential for the brand over the long-term,” agreed Nautica chairman, president and ceo Harvey Sanders.

Earl Jean's lines of women's and men's denim products are available in such specialty and department stores in the U.S., Europe and Japan as Fred Segal, Scoop, Barney's New York, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Harvey Nichols. Earl Jean operates three full-priced retail stores in the U.S.: on Larchmont Street in Los Angeles, on Mercer Street in New York and on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, as well as one outlet store in Cabazon, Calif. Earl Jean's Japanese distributor operates stores in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan.