Chief Executive Officer Khoo Boo Hor said the move was part of a strategy to realign the company’s manufacturing operations.

Sunningdale’s Singapore injection molding business, except for health care and some precision parts, will be relocated to Johor by April.

The company’s bezel and climate control component production will move from Mexico to its Asian facilities, which are technically stronger in decorative plastics technology, he said.

“We will also continue to intensify efforts to develop new revenue streams but will only venture into new businesses if our existing capacity allows it,” said Khoo, who expects a challenging business environment for this year.

“We focused our effort in 2008 to manage for cash flow, but the rate at which resin prices rose and the U.S. dollar weakened in the first half drove us to aggressively take down our cost structure,” he said in the Singapore-based company’s 2008 financial report, which was released February 24.

The company recorded a net loss of S$97.5 million (480.5 million yuan) for 2008. Sales declined 5.2 percent to S$365 million (1.8 billion yuan) from S$385.1 million (1.95 billion yuan) in 2007.

The 2008 loss was mainly due to a noncash impairment loss on goodwill of S$95 million (468.1 million yuan) and noncash exchange loss of S$7.7 million (37.9 million yuan).

Sunningdale said if these charges were excluded, it would have had a net profit of S$5.2 million (25.6 million yuan) compared with S$12.1 million (61.2 million yuan) in 2007.

Sunningdale’s fourth quarter sales rose to S$95.8 million (472.1 million yuan) from S$95.5 million (470.6 million yuan) in the third quarter of 2008 and S$89.7 million (453.6 million yuan) in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The company credited gains from its consumer/information technology and tooling segments.

“Our consolidation of plants, without impacting customer orders, and stringent cost cutting measures paid off as our gross margins improved in the second half in spite of worsening macro conditions,” Khoo said.