The largest contract electronics manufacturers with operations in Orange County added jobs for the first time in the last three years.
The 14 companies combined for a 4.7% increase in employment to 2,653 workers, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The increase came even with the loss of Photonic Products Ltd. from this year’s list. The company had operated as a subsidiary of Salem, N.H.-based ProPhotonix Inc. It has been folded into the parent company and no longer has operations here.
Electronics contract manufacturers had either lost jobs or remained steady in recent years.
Employment at the largest companies here was flat last year; they saw a decline of 12% in 2009.
The most recent gain came in 2008, when employment in the sector rose by 2.3%.
The companies make printed circuit boards and other products for computers, consumer electronics and medical device makers. Some serve niche markets for products that have military, aerospace and industrial uses.
Products made here end up in a wide variety of devices, including computers, cell phones, aircraft and medical gear.
Many contract electronics makers started here decades ago to serve a single customer and have stayed competitive by designing and building prototypes or producing small batches on quick turnarounds.
They compete with a raft of Asian competitors that produce less complex boards that can be made in big batches on the cheap.
Eight companies on the list added jobs in the last 12 months and two reported losses. Two companies were flat, and the Business Journal provided estimates for two other companies that did not provide information for comparison.
No. 1 Santa Ana-based Express Manufacturing Inc., which makes electronics used in the telecommunications and gambling industries, maintained its top ranking.
The company, known as EMI, added 63 jobs in the past year, the most of any company on the list. It employs 760 workers in Santa Ana, up 9% from a year ago.
No. 2 Santa Ana-based TTM Technologies Inc., which makes circuit boards for the communications, industrial, medical and consumer electronics sectors, added five employees in the past year here for a total of 425.
Investors have been keeping close tabs on TTM since its disappointing second-quarter earnings report.
The company saw its shares plummet more than 25% in early August after it missed Wall Street revenue, earnings and gross margin expectations.
It also drew the ire of company watchers after recording a $46.6 million impairment charge in the June quarter related to equipment at a plant that was acquired in 2007 and later deemed to be unsuitable “for the advanced technology demands of our current customers.”
“It looks like that weaker-than-expected performance will continue for at least a while,” Cindy Johnson wrote on investor website Motley Fool following TTM’s second-quarter earnings report.
No. 5 Sanmina-SCI Corp. also added five employees in the past year for a total of 178 county workers.
Murietta Moves Up
No. 8 Anaheim-based Murrietta Circuits moved up two spots in the rankings. The circuit board maker added 22 employees for a total of 82 workers. Its 37% jump in employment was the highest percentage increase on the list.
No. 9 Anaheim-based Multi-Fineline Elec-tronix Inc., also known as M-Flex, shed eight employees and now has 81 local workers, down 9% from a year ago.
The company, which makes flexible printed circuit boards for cell phones and other mobile devices, cut its sales projection for the second quarter to about $191 million, down from prior guidance of $200 million to $220 million.
Analysts were expecting revenue of about $210 million.
The tempered outlook stems from a drop in demand from a “key” customer in late June, M-Flex Chief Executive Reza Meshgin said at the time.
M-Flex doesn’t disclose customers, although Cupertino-based Apple Inc. and Research in Motion Ltd., the Canadian maker of Black-berry phones, are known to use the company’s flexible circuit boards.
Higher seasonal demand is projected to increase sales in the September quarter, Meshgin said.
M-Flex is part of Singapore’s WBL Corp., a holding company that operates technology and other businesses.
The company once produced many of its circuit boards at its Anaheim headquarters, which now mostly handles prototypes and more complex jobs.
Most of the rest of production has shifted to China in the last several years.
Download the 2011 OC’s LARGEST ELECTRONICS COMPANIES list (pdf)
