Rockwell Plans to Relocate Headquarters to Seal Beach

Rockwell International Corp. announced plans Monday to move its corporate headquarters from a leased building in El Segundo to a company-owned facility in Seal Beach.

The move will make Rockwell, a diversified defense, electronics and aerospace firm with annual revenue of more than $12.5 billion, by far the largest public company based in Orange County.

“We are making this move from leased office space to provide an improved, more efficient working environment in company-owned facilities for our employees,” said Donald R. Beall, Rockwell’s chairman and chief executive.

The relocation, which affects about 235 employees, is slated to be completed in January, 1992, spokesman Jeff Charney said.

It will also make Beall’s daily commute a little easier. He lives in Newport Beach and typically flies from his home to El Segundo in his own helicopter. Rockwell officials said the move is not related to Beall’s commute. Rather, Charney said the headquarters is being moved because it will be a better use of corporate assets to occupy a building already owned by Rockwell instead of leasing space.

The new headquarters will be lodged in a 23-year-old building within a 100-acre complex owned by Rockwell in Seal Beach, where the company already has a large presence with its Strategic Defense Center and its Satellite & Space Electronics division.

Rockwell, which has 109,000 employees worldwide, is the second-largest employer in Orange County, with 10,800 workers. Only Hughes Aircraft Co. has more workers in the county.

Lucien Truhill, president and chief executive of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, welcomed Rockwell’s move into the county.

“While the numbers of employees are small, it is a significant corporate headquarters relocation,” Truhill said.

For the year ended Sept. 30, 1989, Rockwell reported net income of $734.9 million on revenue of $12.5 billion, compared to profit of $811.9 million on revenue of $11.9 billion the previous year.

Rockwell has occupied the building in El Segundo since 1975. Headquarters staff moved from Pittsburgh into the building in 1987. Beall said the company will keep its North American aircraft unit, which has 3,800 employees, in El Segundo.