Pacific Scientific to Shut Anaheim Unit, Sell 1 Division
In a restructuring prompted by shrinking sales, Pacific Scientific Co. of Newport Beach said it plans to sell a major Maryland-based division and shut down a manufacturing plant in Anaheim as part of a consolidation effort.
The diversified manufacturer of electronic instruments and aerospace products said it is seeking a buyer for its Analytic Instrument division in Silver Spring, Md. The division accounted for about $30 million of the company’s $157 million in sales last year.
Pacific Scientific has been hurt by declining sales to the military and the nuclear power industry. As a result, company officials said, it is consolidating its Kin-Tech division in Anaheim and its HTL division in Duarte.
The Kin-Tech plant, which makes aircraft products, will be closed, and the 10-acre property will be sold. The Anaheim division will be relocated to an undetermined site closer to the company’s HTL plant.
Most of the Anaheim plant’s 260 workers will be offered jobs at the new facility, but a small number will probably be laid off, said Richard Plat, senior vice president of finance and administration at Pacific Scientific.
The Kin-Tech division and the HTL division, which produces aircraft fire-detection and suppression equipment, are expected to have combined sales of $65 million this year. Next year, however, the company projects that sales will dip 20% to $50 million, Plat said.
“Our aircraft products volume has been declining,” Plat said. He said sales of the company’s other products, such as electric motors and controls, have been growing.
The operations of the new Kin-Tech/HTL division will be regrouped into four major product lines: aircraft fire detection and suppression equipment, ground vehicle explosion suppression systems, aircraft pneumatics and cockpit safety equipment.
For the six months ended June 24, Pacific Scientific had earnings of $2.2 million on sales of $88 million. In the same period a year earlier, the firm earned $2.6 million on sales of $73 million.
