RETAILING : Ocean Pacific Buys Back Licenses to Make Apparel; New Jobs May Follow

In a move that should create jobs and expand operations, Ocean Pacific Sunwear has bought back nine of its licenses to produce and distribute apparel.

The Tustin-based company bought back the licenses from Bayly Corp. of Denver. Until the sale, Bayly had been OP’s largest licensee.

The purchase includes OP licenses to make and distribute young men’s swimwear, pants, woven shirts and sweaters, plus boys’ swimwear, woven shorts, sweaters and juniors and girls’ sweaters.

Ocean Pacific did not release the price it paid for the licenses.

They will be assigned to 1200 Valencia, OP’s Tustin-based manufacturing company, which holds controlling interests in Jimmy’Z, Newport Blue and 180 South. 1200 Valencia makes clothing for OP under those labels.

To handle the additional work, 1200 Valencia reportedly hopes to build a 150,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution plant by early 1990.

Bayly, which retained the OP license for young men’s walk shorts, recently shut down the Santa Ana plant where it made Ocean Pacific garments. Earlier this year, the company underwent a debt restructuring that included shutting the doors of two plants in Visalia. Bayly has laid off about 900 people across the United States.

In a prepared statement, Bayly President and Chief Executive Officer George Hansen said the sale is a positive move. “The sale of those licenses to OP Sunwear is part of an overall restructuring process and a strategic business decision. . . . It relieves Bayly of foreign sourcing and offshore production requirements while retaining Bayly’s largest and most important OP license,” Hansen said.