Another One Bites the Dust: Paul Mitchell Relocates HQ from California to Texas

Another business bites the California dust. Top professional hair care brand Paul Mitchell will relocate its corporate headquarters from Santa Clara to Dallas, Texas, and create a new global distribution center.

A happy Governor Greg Abbott recently announced that John Paul Mitchell Systems will expand their corporate headquarters from California to Dallas County, Texas, and will expand. JPMS is one of the world’s leading professional hair care brands, (used by yours truly for many years), distributing its products under familiar brands like Paul Mitchell, Tea Tree, and Neuro to over 30 countries, Gov. Abbott’s press statement says. “This project will create 80 new jobs and more than $12 million in capital investment. A Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant of $640,000 has been extended to JPMS. In addition, the company has been offered an $8,000 Veteran Created Job Bonus.”

Oh California. What have you done? I remember when California was the land of opportunity, and it seemed that anything was possible with hard work and vision.

Today, too much of the hard work is disincentivized or subsidized, the vision is blurry, the taxes are too high, and the politicians a little too Bolshevist.

“These exits negatively impact the state and particularly the local communities that lose these headquarters,” Joseph Vranich and Lee E. Ohanian, reported in a study published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford in 2022. “Employees also leave, reducing demand within their former communities and reducing economic vibrancy. Jobs are not the only loss. There is also the loss of corporate income tax revenues, business property taxes, rents to property owners, payments to contractors, and fees to companies in the travel industry such as hotels and rental car companies.”

“Texas is the headquarters of headquarters,” said Governor Abbott, who will benefit from California’s loss with corporate income tax revenues, business property taxes, rents to property owners, and payments to contractors. “This $12 million investment by John Paul Mitchell Systems to expand their corporate headquarters to Texas and establish a new global product distribution center in Wilmer will create 80 new good-paying jobs for hardworking Texans. With our skilled and growing workforce, leading position in U.S. and global markets, and the strongest pro-growth economic policies in America, we will continue to attract more headquarters and create more jobs across our great state.”

The Globe reported in 2023 that Economist Art Laffer and Chapman Economics Professor James Doti explained that the ten states with the lowest income taxes including Florida and Texas, gained a cumulative net inflow from all Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) classes of $391 billion from California during the entire 2018 to 2021 period. Note that 2018 was the final year of Democrat Governor Jerry Brown. Gov. Newsom ran for governor in 2018 and was elected. He took office January of 2019, so the 2019-2021 time period belongs to Gov. Gavin Newsom, and since then.

Most companies went to Texas. Here’s why:

“Texas offers a combination of unique competitive business advantages that no other state can claim: a business-friendly climate—with no corporate or personal income tax—along with a highly skilled and diverse workforce, easy access to global markets, robust infrastructure and a reasonable regulatory environment,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said when he recently announced that another major California business was moving to Texas. “California-based Ruiz Foods is moving its corporate HQ to Frisco,” he said. “With an unrivaled business climate and skilled, diverse workforce, Texas is America’s #1 economic destination.”

SF Gate reported:

The company, which encompasses popular lines like Paul Mitchell products and Neuro styling tools, has three partner schools in the Bay Area: in San Francisco’s SoMa district, at San Jose’s Eastridge Center shopping mall and in downtown Pleasant Hill. In 2022, John Paul Mitchell Systems hit the $1.1 billion revenue mark.

Pail Mitchell products was founded in 1980 by John Paul DeJoria and Scottish-American hairstylist Paul Mitchell, with just $350 borrowed from DeJoria’s mother, and grew into a billion dollar company which remained true to its roots: Shampoo One, Shampoo Two, and The Conditioner, 2080.Ventures reported. Then came color support shampoo and conditioners, Baby Don’t Cry shampoo, and even Paul Mitchell Pet shampoo. I’ve used them all.

In the 1980’s no self-respecting woman with big hair would dare step out without a blast of Paul Mitchell Freeze and Shine spray on the over-curled and teased locks.

Paul Mitchell was also selected to receive a Texas Enterprise Fund grant of $640,000. The Texas Enterprise Fund is “a performance-based grant that may be awarded to a business relocation or expansion project for which one Texas site is in competition with out-of-state locations to create new, good-paying jobs in the community and attract significant new capital investment to the state.”

The company has been offered an $8,000 Veteran Created Job Bonus.

Texas knows how to do business and attract smart, successful and growing businesses.

Meanwhile, best wishes to Paul Mitchell in your big HQ move to Texas. Some of us are sorry to lose you.

And what a disgrace California is. No one is singing “California Here I Come” anymore.