Another California business bites the dust. Actually, GAF Energy, which sells solar panels embedded in roof shingles, is leaving California for Georgetown, Texas.
SF Gate reported:
“GAF Energy will shut down its San Jose headquarters on Dec. 13, it announced in a Thursday WARN document, filed with California officials. The company uses the facility for researching, developing and manufacturing its solar shingles — a whole green energy factory at San Jose’s southeastern corner, operational since 2021. But now, GAF Energy will lay off local workers and shift its official headquarters to Georgetown, Texas.”
GAF is so serious about their move they filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification “WARN” document notifying its 138 employees of the decision to move the business in advance.
“The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act helps ensure advance notice in cases of qualified plant closings and mass layoffs,” the U.S. Department of Labor, says. The DOL has compliance assistance materials to help workers and employers understand their rights and responsibilities under the provisions of WARN.
Booming Austin suburb Georgetown is gaining another corporate headquarters as GAF Energy, a solar roofing company, relocates from the California Bay Area, Yahoo Finance reports. “The company will close its facility in San Jose, Calif., and lay off 138 employees. It told the California Employment Development Department the moves are expected to be permanent.”
“This decision was not taken lightly,” GAF Energy President Martin DeBono said in a statement. “In light of ongoing changes in the solar industry, we are aligning our business and our team to focus on key markets where solar is most compelling for builders and homeowners. We are deeply grateful for our employees in San Jose and are committed to assisting those impacted through this transition.”
Yahoo Finance reports that GAF is receiving tax rebates, development fee waivers and cash incentives from the city of Georgetown, a suburb of Austin, Texas.
Over the summer the Globe reported that In-N-Out President Lynsi Snyder was relocating her family and company headquarters to Tennessee.
California ranks dead last once again in Chief Executive Magazine’s Best & Worst States For Business 2025 – the 14th year in a row. Tennessee ranks #1 once again, and now “The Volunteer State” is getting another of California’s oldest and one of the best known businesses in the country: After 77 Years in California, In-N-Out Is Moving to Tennessee.
In August, Bed Bath & Beyond announced that the company won’t open or operate retail stores in California, saying the decision “isn’t about politics – it’s about reality.”
Bed Bath & Beyond Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis told ‘The Big Money Show’ that Bed Bath & Beyond will relaunch 300 stores nationwide — excluding California — while blasting high costs, strict regulations, and weak crime enforcement.
Bed Bath & Beyond filed Chapter 11 in 2023. Chapter 11 is a business reorganization, something Gavin Newsom doesn’t understand based on his nasty X post:
“The company that already went bankrupt and closed every store across the country two years ago? Ok.”
Notably, Bed, Bath & Beyond doesn’t have the Getty family as its business benefactor.
Marcus Lemonis was far more gracious in his reply to the governor.
California’s governor, who has a strained relationship with the truth, denies that Californians and their businesses are fleeing to other states, despite mountains of evidence, well-documented news articles, and economists across the country chronicling the phenomenon.
California’s own Chevron Oil company announced in 2024 that it would move its headquarters to Houston, Texas from San Ramon, California – another big business to flee the Golden State. Chevron joins X/Twitter, Space X, Oracle, Hewlett Packard, Charles Schwab, and Toyota Motor North America, to name a few of the mega-businesses that departed California because of the state’s leftist/Marxist politics and regulatory environment.
“GAF Energy’s decision is likely influenced by Texas’ booming housing market as much as its business-friendly environment,” Yahoo Finance notes. “In 2024, the state accounted for 15% of all U.S. housing permits, driving demand for new construction and roof replacements, ideal for the company’s solar-integrated products, according to data from Realtor.com.”
