Dollar Shave Club shifts HQ from LA to Durham
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The American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham. Photo: Discover Durham
The razor and personal grooming company Dollar Shave Club has moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Durham, citing the city's growing talent pool and quality of life.
Why it matters: Dollar Shave Club is now leasing office space inside the American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham, according to CEO Larry Bodner, who went to Duke for graduate school and moved back to the area last year.
- Bodner said the office, which will take up 17,500 square feet in the Crowe Building, has room for around 80 employees, and that the company has an option to expand into more space in the future.
Context: Founded in Los Angeles, Dollar Shave Club delivers razors and other personal grooming products directly to consumers.
- Unilever bought the company from its founders in 2016 for $1 billion. In 2023, the packaged goods giant sold it to the private-equity firm Nexus Capital Management.
State of play: Bodner, who joined the company in 2023, said Dollar Shave Club has been searching for new office space for the past year.
- Bodner said the company isn't forcing people to relocate from the Los Angeles area, but noted that the office there was pushing up against issues like cost of living and long commutes for many of its workers.
- Because of that, it began a national search for more space, looking at cities in the Triangle, Austin and other fast-growing areas.
- The company is in the process of revamping its line of razors and launched a new ad campaign this week. Bodner said the company's new office also plans to focus on new products as well as potentially acquiring other companies in the personal care space.
Zoom in: Bodner told Axios in an interview that Durham ultimately won out because of its cost of living, the amenities of the American Tobacco Campus, and access to strong talent graduating from nearby universities.
- It also helps, he added, that a number of consumer goods companies now take up space in the American Tobacco District, including Burt's Bees and its parent company Clorox.
- Boston Consulting Group, which Bodner says does some consulting in the consumer goods space, also recently opened an office at the ATC.