OXNARD : Santa Maria Closure May Aid Local Plant

A Santa Maria subsidiary of Abex Aerospace in Oxnard will be closed, a move that increases the likelihood that the Oxnard facility will remain open, a company official announced Monday.

No date was announced, but the shutdown is expected to come within nine to 15 months, said Randall Holliday, counsel for the Abex division of New Hampshire-based Pneumo Abex Corp.

The Santa Maria facility was a center for repairs and overhauling of Abex Aerospace products, which include flight-control systems on military and civilian aircraft.

The decision came as part of an ongoing restructuring of the firm that was prompted by a slowdown in the aerospace industry, Holliday said.

In April, the company announced that the Oxnard facility--with 650 employees, one of Oxnard’s largest employers--might be closed or scaled back during the consolidation.

The chances of that appeared to lessen two weeks ago, when union employees in Oxnard approved a contract extension that postponed pay raises and gave the company greater freedom to juggle work assignments.

With the corporation’s decision to close the Santa Maria facility, the chance that the Oxnard plant will close has decreased again, Holliday said.

“While I can’t say the final chapter has been written on the corporate restructuring, I can say we are more optimistic that the Oxnard facility will remain here,” Holliday said. “I would like to think this is more good news as it relates to the Oxnard facility.”

Holliday blamed the Santa Maria closure on the same financial plight that has forced the company to restructure its operations.

“We have more plant capacity and employees than we have current business,” Holliday said.