Computer Automation to Shut Plant, Lays Off 33

Striving for a financial turnaround after nine consecutive quarterly losses, Irvine-based Computer Automation Inc. said Monday that it has laid off an additional 33 workers, including about 20 in Irvine, and plans to shut down its manufacturing plant in Richardson, Tex., by the end of the year.

Friday’s layoffs come just two weeks after Larry Doskocil, founder of a Kansas-based pizza-topping company, revealed that he had purchased an option to buy 23.5% of Computer Automation’s shares. Last week, Doskocil purchased $3 million worth of Computer Automation company debentures and had two of his representatives elected to the company’s board.

Computer Automation officials said the company was scaling down and restructuring with the aim of eliminating unprofitable operations. By Dec. 31, more workers at the Richardson facility are to receive pink slips, and all of the company’s manufacturing operations are to be consolidated in Irvine.

Since June 30, 1984, Computer Automation’s work force has shrunk by almost a third, from 910 to 687 employees.

The layoffs affected production workers and engineers at the Irvine and Richardson plants and at scattered regional offices. Most of the workers were involved in the manufacture of electronic components, primarily circuit boards used by computer manufacturers.

Ira Robinson, Computer Automation’s general counsel, said the company wants to cut back its computer products business, which has been a money loser, and instead concentrate on the production of automatic computer circuit board testing equipment, which seems to have an expanding market.

Previously, Computer Automation announced that it had entered an agreement to sell its division that produces computer networks for corporate customers--a division that Robinson said also has shown financial losses--to a Santa Ana businessman. The negotiated price for the division, which employs 200, was undisclosed.

Under the restructuring, Computer Automation will no longer be organized into three divisions--industrial products, computer products and commercial systems--and instead will function as a single unit with products serving both the automatic computer circuit board testing and industrial computer markets.

George Pratt, Computer Automation’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement: “Although we will be a smaller company, we will be a much stronger company--one which is better positioned for growth and profitability.”

In its third fiscal quarter, which ended March 31--the last for which it has figures available--Computer Automation posted a $945,000 loss on revenues of $12.75 million, compared to a loss of $1.3 million on revenues of $13.5 million a year earlier.