See Patagonia founder at work in Ventura blacksmith shop
Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, makes a piton in 2014 at the old blacksmith shop in Ventura that was recently named a local landmark.
Editor’s note: This story is the second in a series for The Star’s annual year in review and focuses on business in Ventura County.
Ventura County’s biggest business headlines of 2025 were stories of growth and stories of contraction.
There were layoffs and tariff-related losses at some of the county’s businesses and the closure of a unit at one of the area’s hospitals. In the Conejo Valley biotechnology sector, one of the biggest names started a major expansion and another finished one. And in Ventura, Patagonia released a new report that detailed its billion-dollar-plus annual business and its environmental and social impact.
New housing was proposed for a mall in Simi Valley and for orchards in Ventura.
In one of the year’s biggest stories of any sort, the county’s biggest cannabis business went through extreme highs and lows, from a major immigration raid on its farm and losses tied to that disruption, to a huge jump in its value due to the planned relaxation of federal prohibition on marijuana.
Those stories, and others, were the biggest business news of 2025:
Milgard shuts down in Simi Valley
Simi Valley lost one of its biggest employers in 2025 when Milgard Windows and Doors closed its manufacturing plant in the city and laid off all 397 of its employees.
Milgard announced the closure in March and by June, the facility was shut down.
A company spokesperson said Milgard closed the Simi Valley plant because it acquired another window and door manufacturer in 2024, giving the combined company more manufacturing capacity than it needed in the western United States.
Housing proposed for Town Center mall
The new owners of the Simi Town Center mall are planning to replace some of the retail space there with housing.
The two real estate firms that bought the mall in 2024 put forward a plan in 2025 to build four housing complexes on the property, with between 291 and 375 total units. Two of the complexes would be on what are now parking lots, while two would replace some of the mall’s retail spaces.
The mall’s owners brought their plans to the Simi Valley City Council in May. There have not been any council decisions yet on the proposal.
Haas hit by tariffs
Companies around the world were affected by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. In Ventura County, it’s likely that no one was hit as hard as Haas Automation, the Oxnard-based machine tool manufacturer.
Haas executives told The Star in April that the tariffs would cost the company at least tens of millions of dollars per year, out of its $1.2 billion in annual sales.
Haas imports the raw materials for its products, and the countries it buys from have all been the target of U.S. tariffs in 2025. Cast iron from China is a major component of Haas machines, and a company spokesperson said tariffs on China and other countries would raise the price of Haas’ cast iron by $30 million to $50 million per year.
Pediatric unit in Thousand Oaks shuttered
Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks closed its 12-bed pediatric ward in July. Officials said the unit was seeing an average of less than two patients a day and asserted the closure would help the hospital meet the growing need for adult medical services.Â
The decision left Ventura County with only one pediatric unit, a 16-bed ward at the Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura.Â
Amgen invests locally
In recent decades, Amgen has focused most of its growth away from its Thousand Oaks headquarters, but in 2025 it made a major investment in the city where it was founded.
Amgen announced Sept. 2 that it will spend $600 million on a new  pharmaceutical research and development facility at its main campus in Thousand Oaks.
The company held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new research center on Oct. 30. At that event, Thousand Oaks Mayor David Newman called the project “one of the most significant single investments in the history of Ventura County.”
Limoneira plans new housing in Ventura
In a statement released Sept. 9, Limoneira said it plans to ask the city of Ventura and its votes for permission to build homes on 220 acres of farmland, in what would be Ventura’s biggest new housing development in decades.
Limoneira, an agribusiness and real estate developer based near Santa Paula, has not released any specifics about what the project would entail. But the property, which is north of Telegraph Road in east Ventura, could hold thousands of homes.
Any housing development on that property would have to be approved by the Ventura City Council and a citywide ballot measure. Limoneira executives estimate the planning and approval process could take three to five years.
Takeda opens new wing
Takeda Pharmaceutical, a Japanese drug company, opened an expansion of its Thousand Oaks research and development facility with a ribbon-cutting and site tour on Oct. 1.
Takeda employs about 500 people in Thousand Oaks, making it the second biggest biotechnology company in the area, after Amgen. Its facility there is focused on developing and manufacturing cures for extremely rare diseases.
The expansion added about 15,000 square feet to Takeda’s facility in Thousand Oaks, and cost the company about $170 million over four years.
Raid hits Glass House’s balance sheet
Glass House Brands, the company that owns the cannabis farm near Camarillo that was raided in July by federal immigration agents, lost tens of millions of dollars in revenue due to the raid.
According to an earnings report on Nov. 12, Glass House’s revenue was down 40% from the third quarter of 2024 to the same quarter in 2025, and its net loss in the most recent quarter was nearly four times as big as the one a year earlier.
Company executives attributed the losses and revenue decline to the immigration raid and the labor shortages it caused. Glass House has new procedures to ensure that its workers are authorized to work in the United States, they said.
As 2025 drew to a close, Glass House and other cannabis companies were greeted with good news for the industry, when Trump said he would reschedule marijuana down from the most restrictive level of federal regulation. Glass House stock shot up 60% on Dec. 12, the day that rumors of the change became public.
Patagonia issues first impact report
Patagonia, the Ventura-based outdoor apparel company, released a 130-page report in November that gave the public its most detailed look at the company’s revenues, environmental impacts, supply chains, labor conditions, philanthropy, political activism and more.
The “Work in Progress Report” disclosed Patgonia’s annual revenue for the first time: $1.47 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year. But its focus was on how well the company is achieving its goal of saving the planet. In 2022, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard switched to a nonprofit ownership structure with sustainability and environmental activism as its main focus.
Patagonia’s political activity has sometime been controversial. In late 2024, a campaign finance watchdog group filed a federal complaint accusing Patagonia of using a nonprofit to hide the fact that its political spending came from the company or its affiliates. Patagonia has denied any wrongdoing.
Calavo CEO steps down
Lee Cole, the CEO of Calavo Growers for 23 of the past 26 years, retired in late 2025 from the Santa Paula-based avocado distributor.
Cole ran the company from 1999 to 2020, then came out of retirement to take over again in 2023. His second retirement was announced Nov. 12 and took effect Dec. 8. He was replaced by B. John Lindeman, a member of Calavo’s board and the company’s chief financial officer from 2015 to 2020.Â
Staff writer Tom Kisken also contributed to this story.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
2025 Year in review
- Dec. 25: Education
- Dec. 26: Business
- Dec. 27: Odd news
- Dec. 28: Biggest overall news/Photos
- Dec. 29: Breaking news
- Dec. 30: Government
- Dec. 31: Upbeat news