HARMAN TO CUT JOBS IN VALLEY.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer With its consumer products division struggling, stereo equipment maker Harman International Industries Harman International Industries is an international audio equipment company. Brands
pare minify, decrease, lessen - make smaller; "He decreased his staff" operations at its sprawling Balboa Balboa, town (1990 pop. 2,751), Colón prov., in the former Panama Canal Zone, on the Gulf of Panama. The port for Panama City, Balboa was the administrative headquarters of the Panama Canal Zone. It was also the site of a U.S. navy base (closed 1999). Boulevard complex and transfer some assembly work to Tijuana, the company said Tuesday. Job reductions will be handled through attrition Attrition The reduction in staff and employees in a company through normal means, such as retirement and resignation. This is natural in any business and industry. Notes: and no layoffs are planned, said Frank Meredith, Harman's chief financial officer. He could not say how many positions might be impacted. Employment fluctuates between a high of about 1,000 workers during the Christmas season to a low of about 800 during the summer, he said. ``There is a normal process of attrition in a business, especially in an economy as hot as the current economy and when the economy is doing well, people leave,'' Meredith said. Employees affected by the change, to be implemented in the first part of the company's next fiscal year, which starts July 1, will either be offered buyouts or jobs elsewhere in the company. ``We believe that some will take the package because the economy is so robust. People will find it better to take some amount of money and get a new job,'' Meredith said. Harman, which makes a wide range of consumer audio products, has a 150,000-square-foot building and a 500,000-square-foot building at its complex in the 8500 block of Balboa Boulevard. Speaker cabinet work will be moved to Mexico, into a factory now owned by the company, or contracted out. The Northridge operations will be consolidated into the bigger structure. The company has been refocusing Noun 1. refocusing - focusing again focalisation, focalization, focusing - the act of bringing into focus its efforts from home products to car sound systems and as a result is not making efficient use of space, Meredith said. Assembly lines, corporate offices and design labs will remain at the Northridge plant, which also doubles as the company's co-corporate headquarters. The Asian financial crisis caused the company a lot of trouble. Consumer electronics used to generate about $650 million in revenue until last year and now it is about a $400 million-a-year business, Meredith said. While sales have been flat companywide, the automotive sound sector has been growing. Harman is an original equipment manufacturer to most of the world's major car and truck nameplates. The company is known for its Harman Kardon Harman Kardon, a division of Harman International Industries (NYSE: HAR), is a manufacturer of home and car audio equipment. Harman Kardon is based in Woodbury, New York USA. Founded in 1953 by Dr. , JBL JBL James Bullough Lansing (audio/speaker engineer) JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JBL John Bradshaw Leyfield (wrestler) JBL Jonathan Bell Lovelace (investment research) and Infinity infinity, in mathematics, that which is not finite. A sequence of numbers, a1, a2, a3, … , is said to "approach infinity" if the numbers eventually become arbitrarily large, i.e. brands. Harman earned $4.9 million, or 28 cents a share, on sales of $356.8 million for the first quarter ended Sept. 30. In the year-ago period the company earned $8.5 million, or 46 cents, on sales of $315.9 million. end |
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