Ducommun Inc

Three Boeing Co. employees filed a whistle-blower lawsuit, alleging that Ducommun Inc., a longtime Los Angeles-area aircraft parts maker, supplied defective components used on a range of Boeing airplanes. The employees, who work at Boeing's commercial aircraft division in Wichita, Kan., filed the lawsuit in March, claiming that Chicago-based Boeing was aware of the problems but tried to cover them up. It was unsealed Thursday.

You can tell a lot about a place by knowing a little about the people who started the best-known businesses there. The knowledge tells you, for instance, what it has taken to succeed and survive in the local economy. Although Southern California is sometimes accused of having a short memory about its past, not all its businesses have been flashes in the pan. In fact, it has no shortage of long-established, successful companies.

At first glance, Leisure Technology Inc. hardly looks like a firm in danger of falling on hard times. The Los Angeles-based developer and marketer of adult retirement communities reported record profits in its latest fiscal year. It owns high-quality properties and has a reputation for developing fine housing. The aging of the American population bodes well for its growth prospects. But a closer look reveals signs of potential vulnerabilities, some analysts contend.

Ducommun, a Los Angeles-based aerospace firm, Thursday posted a $5.8-million third-quarter loss resulting from a series of operational problems uncovered by new management that was installed by the board last July. The sizable loss at the firm, which was established in 1849 and promotes itself as the "oldest continuing business in California," came on sales of $16.3 million, compared to a $1.8 million loss on sales of $17.5 million in the same period last year, the company said.

Once-ailing Ducommun, a Carson-based aerospace supplier and one of California's oldest companies, which spent most of the late 1980s losing money, apparently has turned things around, according to an earnings report issued Thursday. During the first full year since Chairman Norman A. Barkeley stepped into the cockpit at Ducommun, the company posted net income of $602,000, contrasted with a loss of $19.4 million in 1988. Sales rose to $68.6 million in 1989 from $59.8 million the year before.

Ducommun--the oldest continuously operated company in California--said Monday that it has agreed to divest three financially struggling electronics divisions that accounted for 85% of last year's sales in a deal valued at $130 million. Included among the divisions to be sold to Arrow Electronics of Melville, N.Y., is Ducommun's Kierulff Electronics unit, the fourth-largest electronics distribution company in the country. Both Ducommun and Kierulff are based in Cypress.

Citing extraordinary gains on the sale of assets, Ducommun Inc. said Tuesday that it had net earnings of $6.4 million for the fiscal quarter ended April 3, compared with a net profit of $221,000 a year earlier. However, without the $8.7-million net gain on the sales of its Metermaster division and Airdrome Parts Co. unit, the Cypress-based company had an operating loss for the quarter of $2.4 million, said Fred Bailord, senior vice president.

Ducommun Inc., the Cypress-based electronics distributor and aerospace parts maker, said Monday that it will sell its Airdrome Parts Co. division to a group of investors headed by Airdrome's management. The transaction was valued by Ducommun at $12 million in cash. H.R. Byrne, Ducommun's vice president of finance, said the sale will result in a net gain of about $1.5 million, but he declined to give details or to say whether the investor group will assume any debt.