Eastman Kodak Co. announced Wednesday as many as 10,000 more job cuts as it navigates a tough transition from film to digital photography.
The lightning transition to a world without film is forcing an extreme makeover at the world’s biggest maker of the product. Its new job cuts, on top of 12,000 to 15,000 targeted 18 months ago, coincide with the disclosure of a second-quarter loss. Kodak’s stock price dipped more than 8 percent.
It’s too early to tell how Kodak’s Windsor plant in Colorado will be affected, company spokeswoman Lucille Mantelli said.
The Windsor plant, which last year employed 1,700 people, is expected to have 1,500 workers at the end of this year as a result of the earlier job cuts. Most of those cuts have come from attrition and voluntary separations, Mantelli said.
The Windsor plant manufactures medical X-ray film, motion-picture film and color paper. The company is also developing a thermal media and inkjet plant there. The Windsor campus’ focus may spare it from massive job losses since Kodak earlier this year wrapped up $3 billion in spending to expand its reach as a digital heavyweight in commercial printing, medical imaging and photography. Sales of cameras, kiosks and thermal printers also helped boost Kodak’s second-quarter sales.
Although Windsor counts Kodak as its largest private employer, recent developments in the area should help offset any job losses, said Michal Connors, office manager for the Windsor Chamber of Commerce.
Owens-Illinois Inc. will open a glass-container plant next month and already has hired some former Kodak workers, she said. Additionally, Front Range Energy LLC is building an ethanol plant in the town.
“If we didn’t have all this new growth, it would be scary,” Connors said of the layoffs.
Kodak missed Wall Street forecasts by a wide margin, largely because of a steeper-than-expected slide in film sales. It lost $146 million, or 51 cents a share, in the April-June quarter, compared with a profit of $136 million, or 46 cents, a year ago. Revenue grew 6 percent to $3.69 billion from $3.46 billion in last year’s second quarter
In the second quarter, sales of digital products and services in all its businesses rose 43 percent to $1.8 billion, helped by a sharp rise in sales of cameras, kiosks and thermal printers. In contrast, revenue on the analog side dropped 15 percent to $1.843 billion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
