Made in the U.S.A. (Not)

Levi Strauss & Co. (San Francisco) said it will shut six of its eight U.S. plants and slash staff by 22 percent as it moves from manufacturing to marketing in an attempt to end five years of declining sales. The 150-year-old denim company also said it would close its last plant in San Francisco — ending nearly 100 years of jeans-making in its hometown. The company's two remaining U.S. manufacturing facilities — a sewing plant and a finishing center in San Antonio, Texas — will continue to operate.

“This is a painful but necessary business decision,” ceo Philip Marineau said in a statement. “There is no question that we must move away from owned-and-operated plants in the United States to remain competitive in our industry.”

The privately held company said it plans to concentrate on marketing instead of manufacturing goods, following the lead of companies such as Nike, Ralph Lauren and Fruit of the Loom. A company spokeswoman said Levi Strauss will contract the jobs out to plants around the world. Currently, the company outsources manufacturing to more than 50 countries in the world, including Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Indonesia. Contracting to outside cheaper manufacturers will allow the company to have a more flexible cost structure, protect its profit margins and, it said, invest more in product development, marketing and retailing.

Levi's move to foreign plants is the most recent in an industry in which rising costs have forced manufacturers to go abroad. The company has assured critics of overseas working conditions and compensation levels that it won't manufacture goods in countries where human rights abuses are documented, such as China.

Analysts said the expected cuts and closings are part of a transition that will allow the firm to better focus on getting customers into Levi jeans and clothes, even if they are made by third parties. Although the American-made jeans were once a status item in countries like Japan and the former Soviet Union, company spokeswoman Cathy Chuplis said most Levi's consumers now don't mind buying jeans made in other countries.

The company's sales have been falling for years, fading in competition with brands perceived as more fashionable by the youth market. Whereas Levi's jeans were part of the 1960s and 70s culture, the children of those baby boomers have failed to embrace the brand. In an effort to restore its faded image, Levi is adding hip styles like its unusually cut Engineered Jeans and the Superlow for women. “Competition is fierce with the likes of Gaps and Tommys and Guesses,” said another Levi's spokesman, Luis Casanova.

Since its sales started sliding in 1997, the firm has shut 24 plants in North America and five in Europe, costing some 15,000 workers their jobs. Levi's said plants located in Blue Ridge, Ga., and San Francisco would close by the end of June. Plants in Brownsville and San Benito, Texas, would close in August, and plants in Powell, Tenn., and El Paso, Texas, would close in October.

Yet another Levi Strauss spokeswoman, Linda Butler, said the company7 may turn San Francisco facility — in operation since 1906 — into a company museum or use it for something like a design facility.