Headquarters for Aerojet to Leave S.D.

Aerojet’s corporate headquarters staff, which moved to La Jolla from El Monte in 1979, soon will move to Sacramento as part of an “overall cost reduction,” Aerojet spokesman Tom Sprague said Monday.

The headquarters move will be accompanied by layoffs for an as-yet undetermined number of Aerojet’s 72 corporate headquarters employees, Sprague said. Aerojet plans to sell or lease its 54,000-square-foot building in La Jolla, and the company’s acclaimed contemporary art collection will be put up for sale, according to Sprague.

Civic leaders on Monday acknowledged that the loss would hurt San Diego, which faces the prospect of losing San Diego Gas & Electric’s corporate headquarters through a proposed merger with Rosemead-based Southern California Edison. In recent years, San Diego has lost the corporate headquarters of Pacific Southwest Airlines, Signal Co. and Wickes.

‘Cost Benefit’

“Moving the headquarters to Sacramento will provide a substantial cost benefit,” according to a prepared statement by Aerojet President Roger Ramseier. “The savings will be realized since Aerojet has available space in Sacramento, and (La Jolla-based) headquarters staff spend a substantial amount of time traveling to and from that location.”

Ramseier described the move as necessary if the company is to remain competitive in the defense-contracting arena. More than half of Aerojet’s 8,000 employees already live and work in the Sacramento area, Sprague said. The corporate headquarters staff is Aerojet’s only operation in San Diego County.

Aerojet, a defense contractor that specializes in aerospace products, previously was known as Aerojet General. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Akron-based Gencorp, does not report profit figures but reported $1 billion in 1988 revenue.

In addition to its Sacramento complex, Aerojet maintains large operations in Azusa and Downey, both in Los Angeles County.

Ramseier, who “was raised in Sacramento, has strong personal ties to that city and is committed to returning there,” according to San Diego Economic Development Corp. President Dan Pegg.

The EDC, a quasi-public organization that is charged with attracting corporations and retaining existing companies, “offered to do anything within our power to keep (Aerojet) here,” Pegg said. “We’re terribly sorry to lose a good corporate citizen like Aerojet.”

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor is “obviously disappointed whenever any corporate headquarters moves out of San Diego,” mayoral spokesman Paul Downey said Monday. “But, as we understand it, (Aerojet’s) new president lives in the Sacramento area and wanted to relocate back to Sacramento.

“Any departure hurts, but this situation is obviously not as great as the SDG&E; situation,” Downey said.

Aerojet’s La Jolla staff reached a high of about 100 several years ago. However, Aerojet cut about 30 staff members at its headquarters building shortly after Gencorp, its parent company, was threatened by a hostile takeover in May, 1987.

The layoffs were part of a restructuring that Gencorp initiated to fend off that takeover attempt. As part of that successful restructuring, Gencorp sold off its General Tire operation, several broadcast businesses and a bottling business.

Since the 1987 layoffs, “the building in La Jolla has been too big for us,” Sprague said. “We’re only using about half of it now.”