BFM Division to Close; 280 to Be Laid Off

BFM Aerospace Corp., another victim of the defense downturn, will close its Energy Products Division here and lay off 280 employees, the company confirmed Friday.

BFM Energy Products, which makes control rods for nuclear submarines, will shut its operation on East Dyer Road in Santa Ana at the end of August, said Barry Rodgers, chairman of BFM Aerospace.

Citing a shortage of orders and the cancellation of the Navy’s Seawolf nuclear submarine program, Rodgers said the division will lay off 60 to 80 employees at the end of the month. The remainder will leave at the end of August.

BFM Energy was formed in a leveraged buyout in October, 1987, when BFM Aerospace investors bought the Lear Siegler Inc. aerospace units of Forstmann Little & Co. for $97 million.

In March, Rodgers said in an interview that BFM had laid off 200 of its 900 employees this year and that more cuts were expected.

BFM Aerospace employs 360 workers at three other divisions in Santa Ana. They will not be affected by the closure of BFM Energy Products, Rodgers said.

Two divisions--Energy Container Products, which makes aircraft fuel tanks, and Commercial Energy Products, which makes mechanical products for power plants--will continue to operate at the plant on East Dyer Road. Transport Dynamics will continue to make ball bearings on Segerstrom Avenue in Santa Ana.

BFM Energy Products has been a longtime subcontractor for General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Corp. In the mid-1980s, the division employed more than 700 people. Rodgers would not disclose its revenue figures.