Bermite, Faced With Lagging Sales, Will Fold Up in ’87

Bermite, a military explosives manufacturer that for more than a year has been plagued by waste disposal problems and accidents, will go out of business next year because of slumping sales, the company said Thursday.

The Saugus firm’s parent company, Whittaker Corp., a Los Angeles-based conglomerate, said it hopes to relocate Bermite’s 150 employees within its organization, or in other local businesses.

One reason for Bermite’s decline is that its products are considered outmoded by the military, Bermite General Manager Larry Bohanan said. The Defense Department is buying a new generation of pyrotechnic products, which use more advanced explosive formulations, and converting operations at Bermite to manufacture them would be too costly, Bohanan said.

Land Value Up

Increased land values also contributed to the decision to close the unit, he said. Bermite has 1,100 hillside acres, bordered by a shopping center and the site of the Saugus Speedway and the Saugus Swapmeet.

“We reached the point that the asset value of the land was greater than the company’s net worth,” he said.

Bermite plans to complete pending contracts, including one to provide decoy flares for the Army, Bohanan said. Bermite’s main product is a decoy flare used to lure heat-seeking missiles away from fighter planes.

Whittaker plans to shift that operation--as well as the manufacture of several other products such as propulsion systems, fuses and igniters--to other divisions, Bohanan said.

There is no timetable for closing the plant, he said.

The company and the South Coast Air Quality Management District have battled for some time over pollution caused by the firm’s open burning of explosive waste. Bermite had been granted a series of open-burning variances on the condition that it search for a permanent disposal method more acceptable to the air district.

Last Variance Expired

Bermite’s last variance expired in January, but the company said that it has avoided accumulation of waste since then, in part because of curtailed operations.

The company had begun designing equipment to burn waste according to air-district standards, but those plans will now be scrapped, Bohanan said.

Bermite also suffered a series of accidents last year. In July, an explosion destroyed an unoccupied chemical-blending building, causing an estimated $500,000 in damage. Magnesium was mixed with other materials to make powder for flares in the building.

Two workers suffered second- and third-degree burns in May and June, 1985, when flare material ignited as they were handling it. A March, 1985, explosion apparently unrelated to flare work caused no injuries.