Beckman to Add 100 Assembly Jobs in Fullerton : Manufacturing: The medical equipment maker is closing its San Ramon plant, whose workers will be first in line for O.C. positions.

Beckman Instruments will close an assembly plant in Contra Costa County and move its work to the company’s headquarters here, Beckman announced Thursday.

The move could bring 100 new jobs to the county, but employees from the shutdown plant in San Ramon will be given first consideration, said Robert Crittendon, a spokesman for the medical equipment manufacturer.

He said Beckman does not know how many of its 140 assembly workers, administrators and engineers in San Ramon will want to move here.

A related, 30-member department from the company’s Palo Alto plant is also being relocated to Fullerton, where the company now employs 2,300 workers.

Together, the operations will form the core of a new unit that will put more of the company’s focus on the bio-industrial market, mostly pharmaceutical manufacturers. Beckman sells measuring and separation devices, accessories and supplies to drug makers.

Beckman is trying to rely less on the bio-research market, Crittendon said, which is very dependent on federal funding and is growing slowly.

Bio-industrial and bio-research operations together make up a $2.5-billion market in the United States, he said.

The company will not be adding new space in Fullerton, Crittendon said, but is renovating parts of its current facility.

Beckman hopes that moving the San Ramon operation closer to its research and development hub in Fullerton will save money, Crittendon said, but he declined to say how much.

The San Ramon plant is the former Altex Scientific facility, which Beckman acquired in 1978, when Altex moved to Berkeley. The division moved to San Ramon in 1984. The lease on the building expires this year, Crittendon said.

Beckman reported second-quarter earnings of $9.3 million; it earned $8.6 million for the same period a year earlier. Sales for the quarter were up 9%, to $220.2 million.

For the first half of its fiscal year, Beckman reported earnings of $17.4 million; it had $16.6 million the year earlier. Sales for the first six months were up 7%, to $416.1 million.

Crittendon said the company will not be closing its Palo Alto plant, which it owns and which employs most of the 900 Beckman employees in Northern California.