Rockwell to Move Its Headquarters to Orange County
Rockwell International Corp. announced plans Monday to move its corporate headquarters from a leased building in El Segundo to a company-owned facility here.
The move will make Rockwell, a diversified defense, electronics and aerospace firm with annual revenues of more than $12.5 billion, by far the largest public company based in Orange County.
“We are making this move from leased office space to provide an improved, more efficient working environment in company-owned facilities for our employees,” said Donald R. Beall, Rockwell’s chairman and chief executive officer.
The relocation, which affects only about 235 employees, is slated to be completed in January, 1992, spokesman Jeff Charney said.
It will also make Beall’s daily commute a little easier. He lives in Newport Beach and typically flies from John Wayne Airport to El Segundo by helicopter. Rockwell officials said the move is not related to Beall’s commute. Rather, Charney said, the headquarters is being moved because it will be a better use of corporate assets to occupy a building already owned by Rockwell instead of leasing space.
The 250,000-square-foot, eight-story building is partially occupied by the company’s information-systems unit. To make room for the headquarters staff, some of the 594 employees in the information-systems unit will be moved elsewhere within the complex, spokesman Fred Evans said.
The new headquarters will be lodged in a 23-year-old building within a 100-acre complex owned by Rockwell in Seal Beach, where the company already has a large presence with its Strategic Defense Center and its Satellite & Space Electronics division.
Rockwell, which has 109,000 employees worldwide, is the second-largest employer in Orange County with 10,800 workers here. Only Hughes Aircraft Co. has more workers in the county. Rockwell will surpass Irvine-based Fluor Corp., which has annual sales of $6.3 billion, as the largest public company based here.
Rockwell’s operations scattered throughout the county reflect the corporation’s diverse range of businesses. The company makes everything from guidance systems for the MX missile in Anaheim to communications satellites in Seal Beach.
The operations include the defense electronics group in Anaheim, which employs 6,300 people; the satellite and space electronics unit in Seal Beach with 1,181 people, and a semiconductor manufacturing group in Newport Beach with 1,335. The rest of the company’s employees in the county are scattered throughout other sites in Cypress, Seal Beach, Anaheim, Newport Beach and Garden Grove.
Lucien Truhill, president and chief executive of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, welcomed Rockwell’s move.
“While the numbers of employees are small, it is a significant corporate headquarters relocation,” Truhill said.
He noted that the county has lost several corporate headquarters in the past few years. The most noteworthy was when American Stores, a multibillion-dollar supermarket chain, moved its headquarters from Irvine to Salt Lake City in 1988.
While other defense companies are laying off workers, Rockwell has cushioned itself by reducing its dependence on defense revenues for several years. Last year, the company’s defense electronics operation accounted for only 26.9% of revenue in fiscal 1989, contrasted with 49.7% in fiscal 1986.
For the year ended Sept. 30, 1989, Rockwell reported net income of $734.9 million on revenue of $12.5 billion, compared with net income of $811.9 million on revenue of $11.9 billion a year earlier.
Rockwell has occupied the building in El Segundo since 1975, and the headquarters staff moved from Pittsburgh into that building in 1987. Beall said the company will keep its North American Aircraft unit, which has 3,800 employees, in El Segundo.
TOP 10 EMPLOYERS IN ORANGE COUNTY
Here are the 10 largest employers in the county, as of Feb. 1990.
Company Employees Hughes Aircraft Co. 15,037 Rockwell International Corp. 10,800 McDonnell Douglas Corp. 9,871 Restaurant Enterprises Group 7,246 Disneyland 7,000 Pacific Bell 6,188 Alpha Beta 5,000 ITT Cannon 4,153 Baxter Healthcare Corp. 3,465 Parker Hannifin Bertea Group 3,400
Source: O . C . Chamber of Commerce ROCKWELL EMPLOYEES IN ORANGE COUNTY
Here are the Rockwell subsidiaries currently operating in Orange County and the number of employees at each:
Location Employees Cypress Space Business Financial Services 426 Seal Beach Administrative Services Center 8 Strategic Defense Center * NA Satellite & Space Electronics 1,181 Information Systems Center 594 Anaheim Defense Electronics 6,300 Satellite & Space Electronics 398 Newport Beach Microelectronics Technology Center 117 Digital Communications 1,335 Garden Grove Administrative Services Center 240 Total Orange County 10,800
* Employment figures classified. Source: Rockwell International
