Part of Pullout From OEM Market : Memorex to Shut Westlake Village Plant

Memorex Corp. said Monday that it will close its manufacturing plant in Westlake Village, where 600 people work, as part of a newly formed strategy to pull out of the so-called OEM, or original equipment manufacturers, market.

Memorex, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based subsidiary of Burroughs Corp., said the Westlake Village plant will remain open for six more months. During that time, a Memorex spokeswoman said, as many workers as possible will be relocated to the seven other manufacturing facilities that Burroughs operates in Southern California.

Burroughs, a Detroit-based computer and electronics giant, acquired Memorex four years ago for $104 million.

The Memorex spokeswoman declined to estimate how many of the 600 workers will eventually be laid off.

Most of those at the large Westlake Village facility, she said, are non-union, blue-collar employees who make storage and communications equipment for the OEM business. Such equipment is sold to other computer manufacturers.

But, Memorex said, it is closing the plant because it is getting out of the OEM market, which accounted for only 2% of the company’s business last year.

Instead, Memorex said, it will focus on its plug-compatible market (PCM) business, which supplies peripheral equipment to end-users of International Business Machines Corp. and Burroughs computer systems. Memorex said it will also stop development of its OEM 5 1/2-inch disk drive and try to sell the 400,000-square-foot plant.