Abex Will Change Its Focus

Abex Aerospace, the Oxnard concern that has been the subject of rumors that it might be shut down, probably will remain in business, but in a different form than in the past, a company official predicts.

Abex, whose 650 employees currently produce hydraulic pumps, valves and other equipment for the aerospace industry, will move out of defense work. Instead, the company will concentrate exclusively on supplying such commercial aircraft firms as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Europe’s Airbus Industrie, said Randall H. Holliday, counsel and spokesman for the plant, known officially as Abex Aerospace Division.

Military work formerly done at the Oxnard facility will be moved to another division of Abex’s parent, Pneumo Abex Corp., in Kalamazoo, Mich., Holliday said.

In the near term, the change may bring some job losses at the Oxnard plant, Holliday said. “But down the road, we expect significant growth in the commercial aircraft market,” he said. “Over the next three to five years, we hope to return to our present size or become even larger.”

Conjecture over Abex’s future in Oxnard began in April, when the parent company warned employees of the possibility of closure or layoffs at any of several locations. Pneumo Abex, a privately held company based in Hampton, N.H., has 5,000 employees nationwide.

Earlier this month, the company announced that a repair facility in Santa Maria will close within the next year. Some of the work now done there will be transferred to Oxnard, Holliday said.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, who represents Oxnard on the Board of Supervisors, said he, like Holliday, believes Abex will remain in Ventura County. “I’m asking local government to assist them in every possible way,” Flynn said. “Among other things, we’re going to help them retrain their workers for the transition to commercial work.”

Even though Abex Aerospace has laid off more than 200 workers in the past two years because of defense cutbacks, the plant is still Oxnard’s largest private employer, Flynn noted.