AlliedSignal to Cut Jobs, Shed Its Car-Care Division

AlliedSignal Inc. said Wednesday that it will eliminate an undetermined number of salaried positions in a cost-cutting reorganization of its aerospace business.

AlliedSignal, the top seller of flight safety systems, said much of the savings will be achieved by consolidating the aerospace unit’s ordering, production and delivery into a single system.

The company named Robert Johnson chief executive and president of the realigned AlliedSignal Aerospace. Johnson, who joined the company in 1994, most recently was president of the unit’s marketing, sales and service division.

AlliedSignal also plans to sell its car-care division, whose products include Fram filters and Autolite spark plugs, and its friction-materials business, which includes Bendix brake pads, Chairman Lawrence Bossidy said.

Those businesses haven’t performed as well as other divisions, such as aircraft flight safety systems and diesel engine turbochargers, the company said.

AlliedSignal expects to save $30 million to $50 million a year through the aerospace unit cuts and will take unspecified charges in the second half of 1999, spokesman John Clendening said.

Analysts have estimated Morris Township, N.J.-based AlliedSignal would cut as many as 1,000 of the unit’s 37,000 employees, though Clendening said the company hasn’t decided how many it will eliminate. No hourly jobs will be cut, he said.

AlliedSignal shares rose 25 cents to close at $53.31 on the New York Stock Exchange.