Cordata to Shut Plant in Newbury Park, Cut Jobs

Cordata Technologies, a Thousand Oaks-based maker of personal computer equipment, will close its remaining manufacturing operation in Newbury Park next month and dismiss an estimated 45 workers at the facility.

The privately held company said Wednesday that all of its production now will be handled in the Far East by a unit of the South Korean conglomerate Daewoo Group, one of its major shareholders. Gayle Soles, a Cordata spokeswoman, said the company has shifted its production overseas for the past 2 1/2 years to cut costs while keeping its engineering, marketing and administrative work in Ventura County.

Cordata’s job cuts, expected to take effect in the last two weeks of October, amount to 18% of its overall work force of nearly 250. About 200 employees are expected to remain at facilities in Westlake Village, Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks, along with the 30 sales staffers the company employs across the nation.

The company’s principal products are laser printers and IBM-compatible personal computers, and it has been hurt recently by slumping orders and price cutting by IBM and competing personal computer makers. Soles said the local shutdown, however, was part of a long-term plan rather than a response to the current slump.

Founded in 1981 as Corona Data Systems, the company posted sales of $54 million in its fiscal year ended last Sept. 30.