Scotts Valley-based Seagate is moving most of it's local operations to Cupertino next year. Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner
Seagate will retain ownership of its current facility until the company decides what to do with it. Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner
Beginning in April 2011, the company will start to consolidate its Scotts Valley corporate offices to a central location in Cupertino with retail teams and sales teams currently based in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.
The move is specifically designed to improve efficiency and collaboration among the company’s branches, public relations director Brian Ziel said.
“No jobs are being affected by the move,” Ziel said. “There are no workforce reductions. This is a facilities reduction only.”
The company was founded in Scotts Valley in 1979. The company occupies about 250,000 square feet of office space and employs 600 people. However, Ziel said that fewer than 50 percent of the employees in the Scotts Valley offices live in the city.
After the move is complete, two branches, the Information Technology team and Motor Group, will remain in Scotts Valley in two office buildings on the west side of Scotts Valley Drive (near Scotts Valley City Hall and the Scotts Valley Police Department).
A little less than 200 employees will remain in these branches and occupy 50,000 to 60,000 square feet of office space, Ziel said.
The move will begin in April or May 2011 and be finished in June 2011.
The company has not decided what do do with the campus on the east side of Scotts Valley Drive once it is vacated.
"We do own the buildings now and we will evaluate the best use of this buildings over the coming year," Ziel said.
Seagate, Scotts Valley's largest employer, has undergone major changes in the past several years.
In January 2009, the company trimmed 2,950 employees through layoffs. Another 1,100 employees were let go in May 2009. Seagate then closed a hard-disc manufacturing plant in Singapore in August 2009 and let go of 2,000 workers as a result.
Seagate’s stock bottomed out at $3.04 in March 2009 but has since rebounded. As of June 24 share are trading at about $14 per share on the Nasdaq exchange.
See Scotts Valley Mayor Jim Reed's comments regarding Seagate in the opinion section at www.pressbanner.com
The big story is how devoid of common sense our local leaders are. Posters below are right - shopping centers and low-income housing. That's the future of our towns in Santa Cruz County.
Low-minded leaders like Mark Stone know that in order to stay elected they have to pander to the statist/collectivist crowd.
That means no new industry, no high tech, no ingenuity, no free enterprise.