Smith Corona to Set Up Shop in Tijuana

Smith Corona Corp., the nation’s last typewriter manufacturer, will begin operating a huge plant on Tijuana’s Otay Mesa in early 1993.

The company said Monday that it is moving manufacturing capacity from Cortland in Upstate New York to Tijuana to take advantage of lower labor costs. A spokeswoman said that “fully burdened” labor costs, including insurance and taxes, are $18 to $20 an hour per employee in New York, contrasted with $4 an hour in Mexico.

The Mexican plant will employ 700 and measure more than 200,000 square feet of space. The Tijuana employees will replace some 775 full-time employees and 100 part-time New York employees who are being laid off beginning in early 1993.

Remaining in Cortland, which is 30 miles south of Syracuse, are 370 employees in customer service, administration and research and development.

Smith Corona has said it is spending $15 million on the move, including $9 million in relocation costs and severance payments that were accounted for in the company’s first quarter ended Sept. 30. For the period, the company reported a $5.1-million loss on $81.2 million in sales.

The company, which said it will take a year to complete the move from New York to Tijuana, now makes five typewriter models.