Unisys Will Consolidate Some County Operations

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA —  Computer manufacturer Unisys Corp. is planning to consolidate part of its Orange County operations here during the next year.

Mark Lipscomb, a spokesman at Unisys headquarters in Blue Bell, Pa., said the company plans to move about 200 employees from Mission Viejo to a 38,000-square-foot building in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Unisys already employs about 400 people in Rancho Santa Margarita and the consolidation of its Orange County operations will not bring any new hiring, Lipscomb said.

The consolidation will be good news for Rancho Santa Margarita, a planned community designed for people to live, work and shop in the same area. About 140 companies have moved into the development’s 5,000-acre business park since 1985. About 3,700 employees work in the park..

Rancho Santa Margarita suffered a blow earlier this year when Hughes Aircraft Co. announced it would move a plant with 475 workers to Carlsbad in a cost-cutting move. Officials of the Santa Margarita Co., which owns the development, declined to comment on Unisys’ plans.

Unisys, which reported a loss of $1.4 billion on sales of $8.7 billion for 1991, shed about 7,000 of its employees last year because of a computer industry slump and the recession.

In Orange County, the company cut its work force by about 100 to 200 people last year. It now employs between 1,600 and 1,700 people in Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Rancho Santa Margarita.

Lipscomb said the company hopes to reduce its manufacturing costs by moving people into the new building, which will be completed in about a year.

Two other Orange County companies--American Partitions and Mr. Fax--also recently relocated to Rancho Santa Margarita in lease transactions valued at a total of $2 million.