Sundstrand Corp. Will Close Brea Parts Plant, Cut Up to 225 Employees Over Next 14 Months

Sundstrand Corp. will shut down an aerospace parts manufacturing plant here over the next 14 months and lay off as many as 225 employees in a consolidation, the company confirmed Monday.

The company will shift the plant’s operations of building commercial and military electrical power systems to a newly acquired, half-empty plant in Ohio, said Gary Hedges, spokesman for Rockford, Ill.-based Sundstrand.

In May, Sundstrand acquired Westinghouse Electrical Systems plants in Lima, Ohio, and Puerto Rico. The Brea operation will be shifted to the underutilized Ohio plant. “We had an overcapacity problem,” Hedges said. “The use of the Brea plant had been under study for a couple of years.”

Hedges said one factor in the decision to close the plant was the cost of operating in California.

“California is an expensive place to do business,” he said. “The high cost of living, property prices, and pollution controls--that was all part of the rationale.”

Hedges said the affected workers will be notified during the next year and will be offered severance pay of one week’s salary for each year with the company. Workers will also receive preference in filling jobs elsewhere in the company.