Xerox moving some production to Mexico Job Cuts

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The Associated Press

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (January 4, 2001 5:28 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Xerox Corp. is transferring production of a line of digital office-equipment products to a plant in Mexico and cutting about 200 union jobs at its manufacturing hub in suburban Rochester.

The Stamford, Conn.-based company said Thursday that manufacturing of its multipurpose "Document Center" machines, which can copy, print, scan and fax documents, will be switched over the next six weeks to its plant in Aquascalientes in central Mexico.

The layoffs will be completed by February. Xerox employs about 13,000 in the Rochester region, including 8,000 at its biggest production plant in the suburb of Webster.

Xerox is undergoing a major overhaul to trim $1 billion in annual costs. The latest cuts are needed "to align our costs with the leanest of our competitors," said spokeswoman Christa Carone.

Since October, Xerox has eliminated 3,200 jobs, 550 of them in Rochester, Carone said. The company currently employs about 94,000 people worldwide.

Reeling from stiff competition, Xerox posted its first quarterly loss in 16 years in October. Its overhaul calls for selling off billions of dollars in assets and slashing an unspecified number of jobs.

Shares of Xerox were up 88 cents, or 16.6 percent, to $6.13 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

-- kevin (ktross@mailcity.com), January 04, 2001


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