Northrop Grumman Corp. Leaving Los Angeles

The recent news of Northrop Grumman Leaving Los Angeles and moving its corporate headquarters to Washington, D.C., is a blow to the Southern California business community.

Northrop joins a list of other major corporate companies who have left Los Angeles in recent years, including Hilton Hotels Corp. of Beverly Hills and Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo.

The company said it will move its entire corporate staff to the Washington, D.C., area by summer 2011 to be closer to its key customer the U.S. government. Northrop will be taking with them about 300 employees from its corporate office in Century City.

Although corporate operations will be moving to Washington D.C., Northrop management maintains that California remains a significant location for its operations with about 30,000 employees located in Southern California.

Still, Northrop will now lose its distinction as the last major aerospace firm based in Southern California — once home too many of the nation’s largest military contractors, including Lockheed Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Rockwell International.

Northrop History

Northrop was founded in 1939 in Hawthorne. During World War II aircraft manufacturing boomed in California, with factories running around the clock. The industry was so robust that communities such as Lakewood were spawned to house workers.

But by the late 1980s, aerospace manufacturing in the Southland had peaked. The end of the Cold War triggered a major retrenchment that led to consolidation of the industry.

Northrop reported $33.9 billion in sales in 2008. Among military firms, it is second in sales behind Lockheed.

Impact on Southern California

In addition to losing a long established stable of the Los Angeles County business community, California will feel the economic impact. With the recent economic declines in California tax revenues, the departure of Northrop will be felt by the state with losing such a high sales grossing California corporate operation.

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