Manufacturers in Los Angeles: garment factories, aerospace and the largest manufacturing metro in the US

This report is for brands and buyers looking for an LA garment factory or other contract manufacturer, people researching or job hunting in the region's industry, and B2B sellers whose customers are LA plants. It starts with apparel, because that's what most searchers want, then covers the whole manufacturing base, the public companies headquartered here and how to prospect it.

Clothing manufacturers in Los Angeles

The US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts apparel plants by metro:

Most of the metro's cut-and-sew plants are in Los Angeles County (1,151), and most are very small:

A brand placing an order is usually dealing with a shop of under ten people, often working as a contractor for a larger manufacturer. Even LA's best-known listed apparel company works that way: FIGS, the Santa Monica scrubs brand, says in its 10-K that its products are "predominantly produced by third-party manufacturing and supply partners in foreign countries."

Check the registration before you sample

California's Labor Commissioner requires every person engaged in garment manufacturing, contractors included, to register and renew every year, and at least one qualified person in the business has to pass an exam. You can look a business up in the Labor Commissioner's garment manufacturers and contractors registration search, which covers approved and temporary registrations and denials, revocations and suspensions.

The Garment Worker Protection Act (SB 62), in effect since January 1, 2022, makes it illegal to pay garment workers by the piece: they must get at least the minimum wage by the hour. The Labor Commissioner says everyone who contracts for garment work is responsible for proper payment, however many layers of contractors sit in between. For a brand, an unregistered or underpaying factory is a legal risk, not just a quality one.

1. What is your California garment registration number, and is it current?
2. Will my order be sewn here or sent to a contractor? If a contractor, which one, and are they registered?
3. How do you pay sewing operators: hourly or by the piece?
4. What's your minimum order per style and per color?
5. Can you work from my tech pack, or do you need patterns and grading done first?
6. What does a sample cost, how long does it take, and is the fee credited against production?
7. Can I visit during production and see a similar garment on the line?

Los Angeles manufacturing beyond apparel

CBP 2023, all of manufacturing (NAICS 31 to 33), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro (CBSA 31080):

By our ranking of the CBP metro file, LA is first among US metros for both manufacturing establishments and employees. Manufacturing is 7.8% of the metro's private-sector jobs.

We calculated average pay by dividing payroll by employees. The two counties specialize:

• Aerospace (202 plants, 31,989 employees in the metro): Los Angeles County has 139 plants and 25,625 of the jobs.
• Medical equipment and supplies (622 plants, 32,053 employees): Orange County has 278 plants and 26,152 of the jobs.
• Computers and electronics employ the most people of any subsector, 58,719, about two-thirds in Los Angeles County.
• Bakeries and tortilla makers, 845 plants with 18,098 employees, are the biggest group inside food.

Plant size across the metro

In three bands: 10,775 small plants (1 to 19 employees), 2,774 mid-sized (20 to 99) and 854 large (100 or more). CBP counts establishments, not companies: a garment contractor with two shops counts twice, head offices are classified as offices, and owner-only shops without payroll are excluded.

Public manufacturers headquartered in the LA metro

Los Angeles and Orange counties are the business address of 95 listed companies with manufacturing SIC codes in SEC EDGAR. The biggest by revenue, each confirmed in its latest 10-K:

We left out three companies EDGAR places here: McGraw Hill's latest 10-K gives Columbus, Ohio, Forgent Power Solutions' gives Dayton, Minnesota, and WEBTOON Entertainment is a publisher, which the old SIC system files under manufacturing. For the state view, see manufacturing companies in California; for aerospace in detail, aerospace companies in Los Angeles.

Sources for names in Los Angeles

• Garment registration search from the California Labor Commissioner, for every legal garment manufacturer and contractor.
• LAEDC, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, with business assistance, industry cluster work (including aerospace, defense and space) and research reports.
• California Manufacturers and Technology Association, the statewide manufacturers' group.
• OSHA establishment search, which includes California's state-plan inspections: search by plant name and ZIP code.

Prospecting LA manufacturers

The metro splits into two very different markets. Apparel is about 1,300 mostly owner-run shops where the owner buys everything and decides fast. Aerospace, medical device and electronics plants are fewer and larger, run quality systems such as AS9100 in aerospace and FDA's quality system requirements for devices, and buy through purchasing, quality and engineering managers with long supplier approval cycles. Size the list separately for each.

Worked example: an industrial sewing machine dealer

Illustrative example. The dealer, its reply rate and conversion are invented; the plant counts are Census data.

Vernon Sewing Supply (vernonsewing.example) sells and services industrial sewing machines and wants LA County cut-and-sew plants big enough to run a line.

• Cut-and-sew plants in LA County with 10 or more employees: 144 + 105 + 32 + 11 + 5 larger plants = 297.
• With the owner or production manager as the one contact at each, a 10% reply rate on a visit offer gives about 30 conversations, and at one service contract per three conversations, about 10 new accounts.
• The 854 plants with one to nine employees are a second list for repair-only service.

Knowing which shops just won a large order or are hiring operators is the hard part. Bebop can search for "Los Angeles County cut-and-sew contractors with 10 to 99 employees hiring sewing machine operators" and research each one.

Next step: pick the right industry codes for your list with the NAICS code for manufacturing.