Jamba Juice moves its Emeryville headquarters to Texas

EMERYVILLE, Calif. (KGO) -- Another well-known Bay Area business is leaving for what it hopes will be the greener pastures of the Lone Star state.

Jamba Juice is moving out of its Emeryville headquarters and heading to Frisco, Texas.

Jamba juice is known for its colorful drinks. But, today the company is worried about the color green, as in money, and saving as much of it as possible.

"One of the decisions we've made is to relocate to Frisco, Texas," said Jamba Juice spokesman Mike Fuccillo.

In other words, leave the company's headquarters in Emeryville for the Dallas suburb of Frisco, population 150,000.

"One of the benefits of it is that it gives us centralized location and easy access to our franchisees nationally," Fuccillo said.

It's also cheaper, with a cost of living index that's 30 percent lower than the East Bay. One hundred twenty workers will be affected and some will be offered relocation packages.

Jamba Juice customers said they don't like losing the jobs, but they understand the move.

"It's like everything else in the Bay, it's so expensive out there," said Jamba Juice customer Carlos Del Puerto.

"It's getting more jobs for other people, but us here in the Bay Area we end up with the short end of the stick, huh?" said Jamba Juice customer Robert Perez.

Part of the problem is the poaching of local businesses by other states. Florida governor Rick Scott was in the Bay Area a few days ago trying to lure firms to his state. But, so far Texas is leading the pack.

A survey out of Southern California finds that 219 businesses have moved to Texas since 2009, or they built new operations there like tech giants Apple, Google, Dropbox and Oracle, worth billions.

One East Bay Economic Development official says that doesn't tell the whole story.

"As soon as they vacate that building there will probably be tech companies looking at that space," said Darien Louie of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance.