Wordplex to Cut Westlake Staff to 100

Wordplex PLC, a British maker of computer systems for word processing, said its plans to close its Westlake Village manufacturing plant will leave the company with about 100 employees there by June, when all production will shift to a new factory in a London suburb.

Because Wordplex distributes most of its automated systems in Britain, manufacturing in the United States has become impractical, Vice President David Basten said. The company lost money on sales of $70 million last year, and generated less than 5% of its revenue from U.S. customers.

A year ago, the company employed 180 in Westlake Village. But the phasing out of the plant, announced last April, has reduced employment to 120, and 20 more manufacturing staff members are scheduled to leave this spring.

The 100 remaining workers will be in research and development and sales, the company said.