News Details

In its continuing efforts to capitalize on new market opportunities and create greater operational efficiencies, Fluor Corp. (NYSE:FLR) Wednesday said it will close its Marlton, N.J. facility, eliminating more than 300 jobs in the process. Officials said they expect to phase out all Marlton operations by July 1, 2000.

Personnel in the company's Life Sciences unit, now based in Marlton, will be offered the opportunity to transfer to Fluor's regional center in Greenville, S.C., where its expanding biotechnology and pharmaceutical activities will now be based. Other Marlton workers who are part of Fluor Signature Services, the company's administrative support unit, will be considered for reassignment opportunities at other Fluor locations.

Officials emphasized that personnel from Fluor's Oil, Gas & Power unit will be retained in the greater Philadelphia area to provide ongoing support to Sun Oil, a major regional client. Separately, another group of workers from the Oil, Gas & Power unit will be offered transfer opportunities outside the region with Duke/Fluor Daniel, the company's power market partnership.

Fluor, which announced a major corporate reorganization last March, is redirecting its resources into higher growth industries, including biotechnology, telecommunications, operations and maintenance, and energy. Over the past 12 months, the company has eliminated nearly 5,000 jobs by restructuring its office infrastructure to more centralized and efficient locations to meet changing market conditions.

"In our strategy to become even more responsive to customer needs, and to move quickly in concert with changing market opportunities, the redeployment of our services is a necessary step forward," said Alan Boeckmann, president of Fluor Daniel, the corporation's engineering, procurement and construction unit whose personnel comprise the largest number of employees in Marlton. "We will do all we can to relocate as many of our employees as feasible, and offer assistance to those employees whose jobs are being eliminated."

With 1999 revenues of $12.4 billion, Fluor Corp. provides services on a global basis in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance and operations, consulting and coal production.

Fluor Corp. releases are available on Fluor's Corporate News on the Net site at http://www.businesswire.com/cnn/flr.htm.