Kodak to Shut Some Factories

Eastman Kodak Co., battling a steep drop in demand for photographic film and paper, is scaling back film manufacturing in China and closing various businesses here and in West Virginia, eliminating about 1,000 jobs.

Rochester-based Kodak, which is navigating a tough transition to digital photography, said Thursday that it would shut down a photographic paper manufacturing operation here by the end of October and move the work to factories in Windsor, Colo., and Harrow, England.

It said manufacturing of consumer film products would be cut back in Xiamen, China.

By year’s end, the company also will close a business here that recycles polyester waste and shrink an operation that processes polyester raw material. It instead will buy finished raw material and hire an outside company to handle the recycling.

In addition, Kodak will close a printing-plate factory in Middleway, W.Va., by March as it consolidates printing operations after its $980-million buyout of Canada’s Creo Inc., the world’s biggest maker of printer software.

Kodak shares fell 4 cents to $25.

The moves are part of a dramatic overhaul begun by the world’s biggest film manufacturer 20 months ago to eliminate as many as 25,000 jobs by mid-2007.

To fortify its swelling digital businesses, Kodak moved to slash deeper than it set out to do in January 2004, when it targeted 12,000 to 15,000 job cuts. In July, it disclosed plans to lay off an additional 10,000 employees, 7,000 of them in manufacturing.