Mitsubishi Unit Plans to Move Offices, 115 Jobs to Georgia : Manufacturing: The Consumer Electronics Group is transferring its headquarters to Norcross to be closer to primary markets.

Mitsubishi’s Consumer Electronics Group plans to announce today that it will eliminate an estimated 150 jobs in Orange County and transfer about 115 of those positions to a new headquarters in Norcross, Ga.

The subsidiary, which makes and markets consumer electronics products from big-screen TVs to cellular telephones, will be relocated by this summer, said Tom Chapman, vice president of corporate communications.

The Consumer Electronics Group is a unit of Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc., which is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric America, the U.S. arm of Japan-based electronics and computer chip giant Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Mitsubishi employs more than 1,000 people in Orange County.

An estimated 35 jobs will be lost after all the transfers are complete, Chapman said. He said final figures won’t be known until the company determines whether employees agree to be transferred.

“Our management decided to move the headquarters as close to our customers as possible,” Chapman said. “The majority of our overall company will remain here. We are committed to California and are not part of the overall industrial flight.”

Many of the consumer electronics group’s hottest markets are on the East Coast, such as Florida and New York, he said. The company’s Braselton, Ga., factory, where the company makes cellular phones and color TVs, is near Norcross and closer to those markets.

All employees who agree to transfers will be offered relocation assistance, Chapman said. Any employees who cannot transfer or are laid off will receive a severance package, he said. He did not offer details, except to say that the packages would be “generous.”

Most of Mitsubishi’s Orange County work force will not be affected. The parent company of the consumer group, Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc., and Mitsubishi Electric America will still have 423 people based in Cypress.

Subsidiaries such as the company’s computer chip and computer monitor units in Cypress will not be affected.

The Consumer Electronics Group’s western regional sales force with 50 people will remain in Cypress. The company’s big-screen TV assembly plant, with 462 employees in Santa Ana, will also be untouched by the relocation and a distribution warehouse will also stay in Cypress.

Chapman said the Consumer Electronics Group, which has sales of about $700 million, reported excellent sales in December and January. He added that the U.S. television industry is largely based on the East Coast.