Valley considered nice corporate headquarters address.

They may be Valley manufacturers, but you won't see any plants or assembly lines anywhere on their properties.

There are several companies that make their headquarters here but have little or none of their actual manufacturing operations in the area.

It's one aspect of Valley business that seems as curious as it is sound business sense.

"You can't make shoes in California anymore. It's crazy," said Steven Nichols, president and CEO of Westlake Village-based athletic shoe maker K-Swiss Inc. which now makes its shoes in Asia and Central America after spending nearly 20 years making its shoes in Pacoima.

Like many Valley manufacturers, K-Swiss has retained its headquarters with its design, marketing and sales staff locally while farming out its manufacturing to plants in foreign countries 15 years ago.

"In our industry, you can't compete if you stay here in the Valley," Nichols said.

It's no surprise that large manufacturers have left the Valley for places like Alabama, where factory workers earn an average $11 per hour, or China where a veteran factory worker can earn as much as $3.50 per hour.

"Companies are competing globally and California is much too expensive for many of them," said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

But even as K-Swiss and others have moved their manufacturing out, the Valley and surrounding communities maintain un attraction to manufacturing executives.

"Los Angeles and the Valley is still a very desirable place for manufacturers to base themselves because of the weather, the quality of life and the talent pool," Kyser said.

"Even with our high taxes and workers' comp issues, we're still very desirable." he said.

Semtech Corp., based in Camarillo, is among the technology manufacturing firms whose production is handled by its subcontractors around the country and overseas.

"Like a lot of other companies today, we're a fab-less company with manufacturing handled outside," said Terry Sears, a company spokeswoman.

Semtech is part of a growing trend of companies that cuts its overhead by switching high manufacturing costs to its subcontractors, said David Goodreau, chairman of the Small Manufacturers Association of America.

"You have a business model that reduces your risks and overhead but gets rid of a lot of jobs," he said.

Westlake Village-based chipmaker Diodes Inc. is another firm with no local manufacturing presence. It closed its manufacturing plants here long ago in favor of facilities in China and Kansas City. It was a business decision aimed at staying competitive in a tough market, said company CEO C.H. Chen.

Craig Pratesi, an analyst at Standard & Poor's, said companies like Diodes have little option if they want to stay competitive in a tough market--they must provide low cost products that can compete with foreign firms.

With its state-of-the-art facilities in China and Kansas City, Diodes has managed to improve its position in the Asian market in particular which now makes up 65 percent of its business.

But for other companies like Power-One, a maker of power supply devices in Camarillo, the move to manufacture equipment in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic is sound given the tough competition it faces from overseas.

Of its 2,600 employees, only about 30 work locally in administrative or marketing positions

But the value of having a Southern California headquarters is high, says Kyser.

"It makes a difference when you have customers overseas and the Pacific Rim," he said.

"The value is that California carries a lot of weight with customers abroad."

For some companies, the Valley will continue to be home even if their manufacturing is steadily moving out of the area.

"It's always a concern to us, but we always feel that we'll stay because it is home," said Jeff Ornstein, vice president and chief financial Officer of Van Nuys-based aluminum wheel-maker Superior Industries.

With one manufacturing plant operating in the Valley, the company has opened two plants in Mexico and operates 11 others around the country.