THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170328
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 34 lines
Schlumberger Ltd. said Tuesday it will transfer two Chesapeake-based divisions involved in electronic transactions to Moorestown, N.J. About 20 people will relocate from Chesapeake as part of the move.
The New York-based conglomerate said it will transfer its North American smart cards and point-of-sale systems groups to Moorestown, where it already has manufacturing, product design and some other operations, by the end of the year.
Two other Schlumberger divisions - retail petroleum systems and transit systems - will remain in Chesapeake. Together, those two groups employ an additional 120 people.
James J. Davis, a Schlumberger executive who oversees the two groups that are relocating, said the move is part of an effort to consolidate operations.
He said Schlumberger considered relocating the roughly 100 smart-card and point-of-sale employees in New Jersey to Chesapeake. But he said moving the New Jersey operations, particularly manufacturing, in the end proved more difficult than transferring the Chesapeake employees northward.
Schlumberger couldn't find adequate space in the Greenbrier section, where the current local operations are housed, for light-assembly operations, he said. And, because many of the divisions' customers are in Europe, Hampton Roads' lack of direct international flights worked against it, he added. The New Jersey location is not far from Philadelphia International Airport.
Schlumberger is one of the world's leading makers of cards, terminals and management systems used to process transactions electronically - in everything from banks to parking garages. It pioneered the development of smart cards, credit-card-sized cards embedded with a computer chip for storing personal information or even electronic cash. by CNB