Hitachi to Close Anaheim Plant, Move to Mexico

ANAHEIM —  Today marks the beginning of Steve D. Stewart’s 13th year with Hitachi, but the quality control manager has little cause to celebrate.

His employer, Hitachi Home Electronics America Inc., announced plans Wednesday to close its 325,000-square-foot Anaheim plant by year’s end and relocate its assembly operation to Mexico in a cost-cutting move.

The closure jeopardizes Stewart’s job and those of 249 other employees at the plant, where Hitachi tests its imported large-screen televisions and assembles videocassette recorders. Like other consumer electronics manufacturers, Hitachi is hurting from slow sales and increased competition.

Hitachi said it is relocating the testing operation to Tijuana, where it has a larger assembly plant with 515 employees. By April 30, Hitachi plans to cease assembling VCRs in Anaheim--where 105,600 units were assembled in 1991--leaving VCR production to its subsidiaries in Japan and Malaysia.

The Japanese company would also move its divisional headquarters to San Diego County by next Jan. 1 to be closer to the Tijuana plant, said Peter Kendall, human resources director.

Hitachi employees interested in transferring to San Diego or Tijuana were asked to notify the company by March 3, when the company hopes to have eliminated 30 jobs through an early retirement plan. That plan would provide workers with a week’s pay for each year’s service.

The company intends to offer an unidentified package of incentives to younger workers who voluntarily resign by early May--a move designed to trim an additional 30 jobs. And Hitachi said it would give at least 60 days’ notice to employees who will be laid off.

Kendall said the company wants to make the transition as easy as possible for its employees by giving a full year’s notice on the plant closure and offering what it considers a “very generous” severance package.

“No one has officially been offered a position in the new San Diego headquarters facility,” said Stewart, who is the quality manager of the Anaheim and Tijuana plants.