CAMARILLO : Newbury Park Firm to Move Into City

A Newbury Park video duplicating company announced plans Thursday to move its 500-employee operation to Camarillo and to add as many as 250 jobs within two years.

Technicolor Videocassette Inc. officials said the company is moving to the former site of Everest & Jennings Inc., a wheelchair manufacturing concern that earlier this year announced plans to move to Missouri, laying off more than 450 people.

Technicolor Videocassette President Emmet M. Murphy said the company had been considering a move to Michigan, but instead chose the Camarillo site on East Mission Oaks Boulevard.

Officials said the move to the 484,000-square-foot office and warehouse building in Camarillo, which will be vacant by next month, will consolidate operations now spread out among eight buildings in Newbury Park.

“Being under one roof will help us a great deal,” Murphy said.

Although Technicolor grossed $400 million worldwide last year, city officials said Camarillo will not gain any revenues by the company’s move because it is a wholesale business.

However, Mayor Stanley J. Daily said the move has a major benefit for Camarillo: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

City Manager William Little said Technicolor has been assured by the city and the county that the company will be placed on a fast track in getting the necessary permits to renovate the Everest & Jennings plant.

Little, alluding to the Everest & Jennings move, said he hopes Technicolor’s decision not to move its plant to Michigan sends a positive signal to the business community. “We just hope that this shows many, many reasons for business to stay in California,” he said.