TRW Income Up for 4th Quarter and Full Year
TRW had earnings of $243 million on sales of $6.8 billion for all of 1987, a 12% increase in profits, over the year before, despite a loss in the firm’s automotive operations. Sales were up 13% for the year, the Cleveland-based manufacturer reported Thursday.
Fourth-quarter earnings leaped 49% to $67 million on sales of $1.74 billion, which were up 12% from the year-earlier sales.
The improved quarterly results were led by a 27% increase in operating earnings at the firm’s Redondo Beach-based Space and Defense Sector, which earned $62 million on sales of $822 million.
TRW said the Space and Defense Sector performance “resulted from new contracts . . . and higher volume on existing contracts.” Earlier this week, TRW said it might lay off up to 3,000 employees in a worst-case scenario in its government business, based on recent government budget cutting on secret programs. “We expect that the Department of Defense budget cutting efforts will effect our backlog, but we plan continued growth in 1988,” a TRW spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, the company’s automotive sector had a $5-million operating loss in the fourth quarter, contrasted with a profit of $47 million the year earlier, owning to charges on consolidating various operations.
