Patagonia, Amgen and the rest of Ventura County's biggest business stories of 2022

Ventura County found its way into the national business headlines twice in 2022: first in September, when the founder of Patagonia gave his company away to climate-focused nonprofits; and again in December, when the Thousand Oaks biotechnology giant Amgen made the biggest acquisition in its 42-year history.

There were also plenty more big local stories throughout the year, including Oxnard getting a piece of Amazon’s global expansion, a rough year for the animal rescue operation Paw Works, and the opening, closing and reopening of a classic car dealership in Ventura.

Here is a rundown of some of the Star's biggest business stories of the year:

Chouinard donates Patagonia to fight climate change

If you own a multibillion-dollar company, there are two typical options for succession planning: either sell the company or leave it to your heirs. Yvonne Chouinard, a climber and outdoorsman who founded the Ventura-based apparel company Patagonia in 1973, has always been a different sort of business leader, and in 2022 he went a different route. He gave his company away.

In September, Chouinard announced that he and his family had donated the company to two nonprofits: The Holdfast Collective, which owns 98% of Patagonia and will donate a share of its profits every year to fight climate change and its effects; and the Patagonia Promise trust, which owns 2% of the company but all of its voting shares and is overseen by Chouinard and his family.

"Earth is now our only shareholder," Chouinard wrote in an open letter announcing the donation.

Patagonia will pay an annual dividend to The Holdfast Collective, which is expected to be around $100 million per year. That's on top of the 1% in annual sales that Patagonia already donates to environmental causes.

Patagonia's sales have been reported at more than $1 billion per year, and the company is worth around $3 billion. It is one of Ventura's largest private employers and has long been active in the area's environmental and social justice causes.

The Holdfast Collective is a nonprofit, but because it is a type of nonprofit that can make unlimited political contributions, the donation is not tax-free. The New York Times reported that the Chouinard family will pay about $17.5 million in taxes on the transaction. Had Chouinard sold the company, or gifted or bequeathed it to his children, the tax bills would likely have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Amgen makes its biggest deal ever

Amgen, one of the world's largest biotechnology companies, has made plenty of big deals in its history, but none bigger than the pending $27.8 billion purchase of Horizon Therapeutics.

Amgen and Horizon announced the deal on Dec. 12, and they expect it to close sometime in the first half of 2023. Amgen will pay all cash for the smaller Horizon and has secured $28.5 billion in financing from Bank of America and other lenders.

Horizon specializes in drugs for rare autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Its biggest seller, Tepezza, is on pace for $2 billion in sales in 2022. It is the first approved treatment for thyroid eye disease, an inflammatory eye disorder than can cause vision loss.

Amgen will pay $116.50 per share for Horizon, which is based in Dublin, Ireland, and has a number of offices in the United States. That was about 20% above Horizon's share price just before the deal was announced, and nearly 48% above its $78.76 closing price on Nov. 29, before Horizon disclosed it was the target of potential acquisition offers by Amgen and two other pharmaceutical companies.

Acquisitions like the Horizon deal are a crucial part of Amgen's strategy. Amgen had revenue of just under $26 billion in 2021, and about 40% of it was "exposed," which means it comes from products that are scheduled to lose patent protections by 2030, Salim Syed, a biotech analyst at the investment bank Mizuho Americas, told The Star.

“Acquiring a company like Horizon Therapeutics fills a substantial part of that void,” he said.

Amazon fulfillment center opens in Oxnard

Amazon delivered its first package from its new 2.3 million-square-foot Oxnard Amazon facility off Rice Avenue and Del Norte Boulevard in February.

The fulfillment center can process about 2 million packages destined for Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties a week. Amazon officials said at the time local residents can expect shorter delivery times as a result of the new facility.

Of the approximately 2,000 Amazon employees at the new center when it opened, about 60% were Oxnard residents. The remaining staff are from other parts of the county and the surrounding area.

In November, Amazon announced plans to lay off around 10,000 employees, as some of the pandemic-driven growth in online sales has begun to slow. The Oxnard facility appears safe, though, as the company said the job cuts will be focused on corporate offices and technology divisions.

Crown Classic Cars opens, closes, re-opens

The city of Ventura shut down the Crown Classics and Hot Rods dealership on Johnson Drive in July after the business failed to obtain building permits.

When Crown Classics opened in the once-shuttered Toys R Us, which closed in spring 2018, the new business renewed hope in a corridor of retail shops that had been on a decline for some time. That would have to wait.

City officials became aware the car business had done major interior renovations after reading a story by The Star. As a result, staff ordered the dealership to stop construction and deemed the building unsafe just days before its grand opening.

The classic car dealership owned by Bob Crown has since reopened.

Paw Works undergoes year of trials

Paw Works, an animal rescue located near Camarillo, suffered a series of setbacks in 2022.

In June, a 3-year-old rescue dog named Pretty Girl was stolen. The dog was found along Highway 101 in Newbury Park after apparently being struck by a car. She later died at the Paw Works Veterinary Hospital in Thousand Oaks.

Then in August, the nonprofit announced it would no longer accept dogs and cats because it was facing eviction. After scrambling to find a new facility, the Camarillo animal shelter moved into a larger building just outside the city in November. Paw Works' Thousand Oaks storefront remained open and operating during the challenges.

Not long afterward, the organization lost one of its co-founders, Chad Atkins. He died unexpectedly at home in Ventura on Dec. 10 due to heart failure.

Brittany Vizcarra, Paw Works’ director of operations, said Atkins’ passing will not stop the animal rescue from its mission. Staff are rallying around the death of their co-founder and pressing forward with a low-cost spay and neuter clinic.

Anacapa Brewery closes; other businesses share same fate

Anacapa Brewing Company in Ventura, the county's longest-running brewery, closed in late October. The downtown brewery, located on Main Street, had been in business since June 2000, but faced obstacles since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including staffing and food costs. When it opened, it was the only name in craft beer, but Ventura alone now has nine other brewers.

Anacapa wasn't the only longstanding business to close shop in 2022.

Other notable Ventura businesses that closed include Ford of Ventura, which had been operating for six decades; The Village Carousel & Arcade, a popular family attraction at the Ventura Harbor; and Lights Beautiful, a family-owned and operated business selling light fixtures since 1968.

This week

• Sunday: Photos of 2022

• Monday: Top headlines of 2022

• Tuesday: Breaking news of 2022

• Today: Biggest business stories of 2022

• Thursday: General news of 2022

• Friday: Government, political news of 2022

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: The biggest business stories of 2022 in Ventura County