News

Two communities vie for Kodak's expanding digital imaging operations

March 11, 2004

Eastern Kodak Co.'s hometown of Rochester, N.Y., and the Denver suburb of Windsor, Colo., are squaring off for an expansion of the company's explosive digital imaging business.

The Associated Press reports that by month's end Kodak is expected to choose one of the communities to ratchet up its production for digital imaging. The Windsor plant makes paper and ribbon for digital photo kiosks, motion-picture film and medical imaging products.

Kodak officials in Rochester are keeping mum about the expansion project, but a Kodak spokeswoman in Windsor told the AP: "We are a site of choice for digital expansion, but we have not yet been awarded this project. It's between us and Rochester, and involves the digital end of the business."

Previously, Kodak announced it would cut 12,000 to 15,000 jobs worldwide over the next three years due to declining film sales, with the savings to be plowed into its computerized imaging segment. About one-third of those job cuts would occur in Rochester.

Kodak is investing heavily in consumer digital photography, commercial printing, health imaging and other fields as part of the shift to digital imaging.

Earlier this week, the AP reported, the company said it would acquire two commercial printing businesses in an expansion in that field.