Metal Bellows Division Sale in Moorpark to Cost 120 Jobs

About 120 Ventura County jobs will be lost as a result of the sale of most of the Moorpark division of Metal Bellows, a producer of parts used in aerospace and heavy industry.

Metal Bellows’ parent, Parker Hannifin Corp., closed a deal last week to sell almost all of the Moorpark operation and a sister unit in Sharon, Mass., to Chicago-based Senior Flexonics Inc.

Parker Hannifin, based in Cleveland, is best known as a producer of industrial and aerospace control devices. The company said it sold the bellows division because it is downsizing its involvement in aerospace.

Parker Hannifin announced in February that it was negotiating with several potential buyers.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

The Moorpark plant produces aerospace bellows, which control the flow of air through jet aircraft engines. The division also turns out specialty hoses used in the nuclear energy and space fields.

Work being done at Metal Bellows’ Moorpark plant will be moved to other Senior Flexonics sites, including the newly acquired Sharon facility, over the next several months, according to a Senior Flexonics official who asked not to be identified.

The official said the Moorpark employees will be laid off as their work is phased out over the next several months. They will be offered severance benefits and out-placement assistance, the official added. “A few people will be offered a chance to transfer to our plants in the Midwest or the East, but I can’t say how many will get the offer,” the official said.

One small part of the Moorpark operation that was excluded from the sale makes ducting products and metal assemblies. D. E. Logan, a Parker Hannifin spokesman in Cleveland, said he did not know how many workers are employed in the unsold part of the division, but said he expected that portion to be sold to another company.

Senior Flexonics is a subsidiary of Senior Engineering Group, an international engineering firm based in Rickmansworth, England.