Toshiba Plans to Triple Jobs at Irvine Plant

Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. has accelerated its year-old expansion at its main Irvine plant because of brisk demand for its products and expects to nearly triple employment there to 2,400 people by March, 1992, the company’s president said Friday.

Kiichi Hataya, president of the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp., said in an interview that the expansion is due to acceptance of Toshiba’s products as well as the Japanese parent firm’s long-term strategy to shift manufacturing of products sold in the U.S. market to the United States from Japan.

The company currently employs 879 people at its Irvine manufacturing operation, which produces laptop computers, business telephones, facsimile machines, office copiers and cellular phones. It previously had expected to boost employment to 1,800, but strong sales now will kick that figure up another 600 workers.

The company expects to employ 3,000 people throughout its U.S. operations by early 1992, up sharply from earlier estimates of 2,200. The unit’s current U.S. employment is 1,560 people. Besides operations in Irvine, the company also has a facility in South Dakota.

Hataya also said the company plans to manufacture in Irvine a new lightweight “laptop-type engineering workstation,” introduced earlier this week by its parent in Tokyo. The new machine will hit the Japanese market in July and will probably reach the U.S. market early next year, Hataya said.

Toshiba opened its information systems unit in 1981. Spurred by the threat of a ban on Toshiba imports as a result of trade violations in 1987, as well as the corporation’s strategy to establish manufacturing operations on all major continents, the company has shifted more production to the United States in the past several years.