Rohr to Build New Facility Out-of-State : * Aerospace: The Chula Vista firm, claiming that California is anti-business, will open a plant in Arkansas employing 150.

Rohr Inc., which has complained of an anti-business bias in California, will build a 225,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Arkansas that will employ 150 people by 1995, company officials said Friday.

The Chula Vista-based firm opted for an out-of-state expansion because of Arkansas’ low utility rates and the new plant’s proximity to existing Rohr assembly plants in the Southeast. The $25-million plant will incorporate a proprietary “superplastic” technology as well as processing and fabrication facilities for metals used in the construction of aircraft-engine components.

Arkansas will issue low-cost industrial revenue bonds to help pay for the plant, and a state-funded program will pay some employee-training costs. Rohr will open part of the $25-million plant later this year.

Local economic development officials on Friday blamed state regulations for pushing the Rohr plant out-of-state.

“We can do almost anything that Arkansas can do except keep regulators from being onerous,” said Dan Pegg, president of the San Diego Economic Development Corp. “My best bet is that if (California) had the same hospitable (business) environment that Arkansas offers, utility rates and land costs would be of marginal interest to Rohr.”

While Rohr already has several plants outside of California, nearly 8,000 of its 10,000 employees are located at Rohr plants in Chula Vista and Riverside.

“It’s not our plan to leave,” Rohr Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Goldsmith said Tuesday during a speech to members of a Kiwanis group in San Diego. “Our big plants . . . will always be here. They are the dominant part of Rohr.”

However, Goldsmith said Rohr will locate plant expansions out-of-state to escape what he views as onerous regulations.

During his Tuesday speech, Goldsmith said that it took four years for Rohr to gain regulatory approvals for a new corporate office building now under construction in Chula Vista. In contrast, Rohr completed two manufacturing plants in Arkansas in less than a year.

Goldsmith complained that Rohr’s profits are being eroded because “it just takes too damn long to get an answer” from California bureaucrats.

Goldsmith also claimed that, because of aggressive environmental regulations, “there is no room left (in California) for the aerospace industry . . . we do paint stuff, and we do use cleaning solutions . . . (but emissions limits mean) there isn’t any room left for us.”

In a related development on Thursday, Rohr reported that it has reduced its overall work force by 900 employees during the first six months of its fiscal year, which ends in July. The company anticipates further layoffs during the remainder of its fiscal year “to achieve improved performance levels and to meet our changing customer delivery schedules.”

Rohr reported that net income for the second quarter that ended Feb. 2 rose to $8.6 million, up from $5.7 million during the like quarter a year ago. Quarterly revenue rose slightly to $306.9 million, up from $301 million.

However, in a prepared release, Goldsmith said that sales during the remainder of Rohr’s fiscal year will falter because customers are delaying orders for aircraft. Rohr manufactures engine components for most commercial airliners and a handful of military aircraft.