Columbus direct-sales company Thirty One Gifts to move into former Bob Evans headquarters while moving distribution to Texas.

Thirty-One Gifts, the direct-selling company known for its handbags, totes and accessories, will move its corporate headquarters and distribution center next year, moves that will cost 800 central Ohio warehouse workers their jobs.

The company will move its corporate headquarters to the Bob Evans campus in New Albany, which it recently acquired, from its current location near Easton in early January 2019. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced.

About 300 people work in the corporate headquarters and will make the move.

But Thirty-One also announced it will move its distribution center to Texas from Columbus in the second quarter of next year, affecting 800 employees. The new distribution center in Dallas will employ about 650 workers. Hiring will begin in January, and fulfillment operations will begin there in April 2019.

The move into the new buildings supports the company’s growth plans, said Cindy Monroe, founder and CEO of Thirty-One Gifts.

“We’ve had our home office and distribution center in Columbus for 10 years,” Monroe said in a statement.

“Our Columbus location has served us well, and we’re proud and excited to maintain our headquarters — and 300 jobs — here. Moving the distribution center to Texas, however, puts our distribution operations closer to areas of significant growth potential for us in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.”

The former Bob Evans headquarters "is a beautiful building on a beautiful 40-acre campus,” she said. “It will help us attract and retain the top talent we need to grow and remain a leader in the industry.”

Bob Evans opened its New Albany campus in 2013 after the company abandoned its longtime headquarters on the South Side of Columbus. In September, the prepared-foods company, which split from the restaurant division, announced it was leaving the New Albany headquarters early next year.

There are three buildings on the campus. Thirty-One Gifts will occupy 75 percent of the main building and lease the other 25 percent to Bob Evans Restaurants. Thirty-One Gifts will use the training center for employee and sales field events, and the carriage house for research and development and storage.

Thirty-One has invited its distribution center workers to relocate to Dallas and continue working at the 651,000-square-foot distribution center space it is leasing in Flower Mound, a suburb of Dallas. Distribution center workers who remain in Columbus will be eligible for a severance package and outplacement services, including onsite job fairs, Monroe said.

“We will do everything we can to help our employees through this transition,” Monroe said.

Thirty-One Gifts started in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2003 and moved to Columbus in 2008. The company uses an army of sales consultants to sell personalized boutique items such as totes, handbags, luggage and backpacks in house parties.

The business has gone through a cycle of growth, decline and resurgence that started in 2013, when company revenue peaked at $763 million. In 2014, revenue dropped to $643 million, then fell again in 2015 to $516 million and again in 2016 to a level that the privately held company has not disclosed.

A turnaround began two years ago, Monroe said last year. She said at that time that the company would be debt-free by the end of 2017.

tferan@dispatch.com

@timferan