Local Plant Unaffected by 3M Restructuring : Business: Camarillo manufacturer, which employs more than 600, expects no layoffs. Closures elsewhere could produce more work here.
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.’s plan to spin off its data storage and imaging systems units to its shareholders is not expected to affect jobs at the 3M Data Storage Tape Technology manufacturing plant here, company officials said Tuesday.
“Our customer base is strong in the data production area and our business is not part of the poor-performing business but is performing well,” said Chuck Byrne, 3M’s Camarillo plant manager. “In fact, we might get new business because some plants are being consolidated.”
3M announced Tuesday that it would cut about 5,000 jobs worldwide and discontinue its audio and videotape business. 3M produced the first commercially successful recording tape in 1947, a precursor to modern-day videotape.
The data storage and imaging systems businesses to be spun off to existing shareholders had sales of more than $2 billion in 1994 and employ about 11,000 people worldwide, company officials said.
The firm’s data storage business is the worldwide leader in devices used to store and transmit computer information, including data cartridges, diskettes and optical disks.
The imaging systems business is the world’s leading supplier of color proofing materials, as well as laser imagers for medical diagnostics. It also has a strong position in printing plates, X-ray films and private-label color films.
The independent new company, which has not yet been named, will include the Data Storage Tape Technology Division’s 48-acre manufacturing plant in Camarillo.
The Camarillo facility, which makes data cartridge tapes for personal computer users, employs between 620 and 650 people. The plant also produces a new line of computer data storage tapes called the Travan Series, introduced in June.
“We have some open positions that we’re filling,” Byrne said. “We’re meeting with all the employees to let them know there will be no layoffs here. We’re in a very good position. We’ll be a bigger piece of the pie within the dynamics of this new company.”
3M built the Camarillo plant in 1963.
