Lucas Aerospace said it will close down its Southern California aerospace gearbox plant and transfer the work to a more modern plant in Utah over the next two years.
"We built a state-of-the-art, world-class facility in Utah three years ago, so we're doing this to become more competitive," said spokeswoman Renate Myles.The Lucas Western Inc. Applied Technology facility in City of Industry, Calif., currently employs more than 400 people. Its work will be transferred to its Geared Systems facility in Park City, Utah.
"The Park City facility produces the gearing for the gearboxes that are produced at the City of Industry, so they obviously go together," Myles said.
Lucas Aerospace began operating the Southern California plant six years following its purchase of Western Gear Corp.
Lucas also said site locations are still under review for the relocation of the hoist and winch product lines currently manufactured and assembled in the City of Industry facility.
Myles said British-based Lucas Aerospace leases rather than owns the Southern California facility.
The announcement is the latest in a long series of aerospace plant closures in Southern California. The region received a body blow Friday with the announcement of McDonnell Douglas' plan to close its Douglas Aircraft parts plant in Torrance.
The closure, set for an unspecified time next year, will idle 2,000 employees at the factory, which employed 5,000 people as recently as 1988.
Southern California, which has by the far the nation's largest concentration of aerospace work, has lost as many as one in three aerospace jobs in the past six years. It has seen a steady stream of aerospace business leave, most notably Lockheed's decision two years ago to move most of its aircraft assembly operations to Georgia.
Other states have organized campaigns to lure Los Angeles companies away. Executives have been complaining the high costs of doing business in California - brought on by worker's compensation costs, higher salaries and compliance with air-quality rules - are accelerating the business flight problem.
Myles said the Lucas Aerospace decision was based largely on the cost-savings of doing business at the "state-of-the-art" plant in Utah. "We still have a lot of other facilities in California and no anticipation of moving from those facilities," she said.
Los Angeles County aerospace employment peaked in December 1986 at 304,000. It has now declined to 214,000. Forecasts of this year's aerospace job losses say it could total 20,000.