Symbol Technologies May Close Plant : Manufacturing: The maker of bar-code scanners for businesses plans to cut costs to offset millions in losses.

Symbol Technologies Inc., which makes bar-code scanners used at store check-out counters, is considering closing its factory and offices in Costa Mesa, where it employs 500.

Symbol’s biggest customers--retailers--have been pounded by the recession, and Symbol’s sales have slumped.

In its latest quarter, ending in September, Symbol lost $3.4 million on sales of $78 million, down from a profit of $7 million on sales of $87 million in the same quarter last year.

Looking for ways to cut costs, the company is contemplating--as one of what it says are many alternatives--closing or shrinking its operations here. Symbol is based on Long Island in New York.

Symbol makes in New York the gun-like hand-held scanners used by sales clerks in stores; in Costa Mesa it makes portable computers with built-in scanners.

These computers are used in businesses such as grocery stores to keep track of inventory. Using the small hand-held computer, an employee can instantly check how much product is on store shelves, how much is in the warehouse and even order more.

The portable computer business run from Costa Mesa is actually doing better than the scanner business, which is “sick,” said Dick Davis, a stock analyst and salesman at San Francisco brokerage L.H. Alton & Co.

The portable terminal business, on the other hand, is “up sharply,” he said. The company won’t discuss its businesses in detail.

Symbol came to Costa Mesa in 1988 when it bought MSI Data Corp.--a company about its own size that made portable computers--for $135 million.

As part of its cost-cutting program, Symbol chopped 140 jobs last summer, including 45 in Costa Mesa. Most of them were white-collar workers.

The company says a major decision such as closing the Costa Mesa plant would be made by the company’s board. It will not say when the decision is likely to be made.