Diceon Seeking Expansion Sites to Meet Growth Needs
Irvine-based Diceon Electronics Inc., which has defied the computer industry slump with impressive earnings, is studying sites in Irvine and Santa Ana for two new plants that potentially would provide about 500 new jobs.
Diceon is looking at the two undisclosed sites as “suitable plants” to manufacture the company’s only product, circuit boards, said Diceon Executive Vice President Peter S. Jonas. Computer chips are mounted and connected to one another on circuit boards.
The new plants would enable Diceon to hire 300 new employees in Santa Ana and 200 in Irvine, Jonas said.
But, he added, the company is continuing to negotiate with the property owners and “nothing has been signed yet. The deals might fall apart.”
The company also is planning to expand its main plant in Irvine by 16,000 square feet by the end of this year, Jonas said.
Diceon has to add more factories because of its continuing growth, Jonas said. “We started in 1980 making only $6 million a year (in sales). Now we can reach over $85 million.” The company reported almost $65 million in sales for 1986.
Diceon, which employs about 900 workers, presently has two plants in Irvine, one in Chatsworth and one in Nashua, N.H.
The company was a division of Santa Barbara-based Applied Magnetics Inc. in 1980, when Jonas and co-founder Roland G. Matthews bought it for $2.5 million and named it Diceon.
Concentrating on the less competitive circuit-board field, Diceon manufactures multilayer boards for its 100 to 120 high-tech customers--including Digital Equipment and Data General. A multilayer board reduces the space between components and allows more chips to be installed in the available space.
On Monday, Diceon announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Mountain View-based Symtron Corp., a maker of panels for installation of multilayer circuit boards, for about $11.7 million in common stock. For its 1986 fiscal year, Diceon posted a record $6.9-million profit on sales of $64.7 million.
