May 11,2016 –
Santa Maria’s largest private employer, French-owned Zodiac Aerospace seat shells division will lay off 168 workers next month according to a new state WARN notice published this week. The company employs around 1800 workers in Santa Maria according to their website.
The division specializes in passenger seats for regional aircraft manufacturers. The Santa Maria facility, expanded in 2012, is located in a 82,000sf building on Airpark Drive. Zodiac operates 100 sites worldwide with eight locations in California and three in Washington.
In a March financial report to its shareholders the company pointed to issues with the Santa Maria operation.
“The recovery and industrial transformation plans for the Seats branch are proving long and costly, especially at its seat shell manufacturing site at Santa Maria, California.” For the first 9 months of the fiscal year the firm said revenue in the seat division was down 4.2%.
The March report says” Within the Zodiac Seats branch, the Zodiac Seat Shells division at Santa Maria, California, has around 1,800 employees and has seen in-depth restructuring in recent years with the doubling of its size and the move to more industrial production.” A few years ago the company employed 1200 according to the the city.
Zodiac Seats U.S. is one of the world’s top manufacturers of commercial aircraft seats for airlines and commercial aircraft manufacturers. Its headquarters and primary manufacturing facility is located in Gainesville, Texas with final assembly lines also located in Rancho Cucamonga California, Tianjin, China and a component manufacturing facility in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Zodiac acquired C&D Aerospace in 2005 which had a plant in Santa Maria.
Calls to the corporate office in HuntingtonBeach were not returned.