Huck International Headquarters to Shut Down

Thiokol Corp. said Monday that it will close its Huck International Inc. subsidiary’s headquarters in Orange County this year and relocate most operations to Tucson, laying off 13 of the unit’s 48 workers in the process.

The research and development department in Irvine, with 16 employees, will be transferred to Huck’s plant in Carson, the company said, while 19 other marketing and administration employees will be offered transfers to Lakewood or the new corporate office in Tucson, Ariz., a company spokesman said.

The move is expected to be completed by July 31.

Huck, which designs and makes high-performance fasteners and installation systems, is the commercial side of defense and aerospace contractor Thiokol’s operations. In fiscal 1995, Huck posted sales of $228 million, just under 25% of Thiokol’s total sales of $957 million.

Elimination of the Irvine headquarters is part of a drive to improve Huck’s earnings, Thiokol Chairman James R. Wilson said. Huck also has been trimming its overseas operations, writing down inventory and shuffling its management.

Huck has a total of 1,200 employees. In addition to plants in Carson, Lakewood and Tucson, Huck has factories in Waco, Texas; Branford, Conn.; Kingston, N.Y.; England, Germany and France. It also has sales offices in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Australia and Taiwan.

Huck International was founded in 1940 in Detroit. Its corporate headquarters was moved to Orange County in 1981, a year after Huck was acquired by auto parts giant Federal-Mogul Corp. Thiokol bought Huck in 1991 when Federal-Mogul decided to cut its dependence on dwindling defense and aerospace contracts.