Remote Control-Maker Relocates to O.C.

Universal Electronics Inc., an Ohio company that makes universal remote controls for televisions and other electronics products, said Friday that it will move its headquarters to its Orange County technical center.

Universal has 72 employees at its research and development center in Cypress and expects to add about 40 headquarters staff, mostly transferring workers from its current home in Twinsburg, southeast of Cleveland.

The company, though, will begin hiring next month for some administrative positions it will need to fill, said David M. Gabrielsen, Universal’s chairman. The company also has about 40 employees in Holland, handling European sales.

The company, which had 250 employees a year ago, will end up with about 160 by the time the relocation is completed in mid-1998, he said. The move is part of a major reduction in staff and a change in target markets as Universal tries to halt the accumulated losses of $14.8 million in the past three years.

The company is pulling out of the money-losing consumer market, where previous management had built so many remote control devices that it has taken the company three years to sell the inventory.

Now, Gabrielsen said, the company will focus on the growing commercial market for remotes among cable operators and other so-called subscription broadcasters, which, in turn, provide the remotes with their services to consumers.