The Irish operations of Eastman Kodak are to be examined as part of a major restructuring of the company worldwide. However it is not yet clear whether there will be job losses in Ireland. Eastman Kodak employs 227 people at its CD-ROM manufacturing plant in Youghal, Co Cork, and is scheduled to employ 400 people at a new plant in Limerick.
The company announced yesterday it plans to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide and eliminate one billion dollars from its cost structure over the next two years.
A spokesman for the company in the United States said last night that "all operations were entering an evaluation period" and this included the plants at Youghal and Limerick.
In October the company reduced the workforce at Youghal from 347 to 227 because of "challenges imposed by the changing marketplace".
The managing director of the plant at Cork, Mr Gerry Poshkus, was not available last night for comment. However, a spokesman said that planned operations such as the one in Limerick would be subject to a "detailed review process".
The plant in Limerick was to be fully operational shortly and there is a small staff already working there. Last night, the human resources manager at the plant said she did not know what the restructuring plan would mean for jobs in the area.
The company had planned to invest £100 million in Limerick for the manufacture of film cassettes for its latest Advanced Photo System.
At this stage, where the 10,000 jobs will be shed has not been agreed and several cities in the US have expressed concern about large layoffs.
Speaking in New York, the company's president and chief operating officer, Mr Daniel A. Carp, said people affected by the restructuring would be notified "as quickly as possible".
The plans to cut 10,000 jobs, or roughly one in 10 of the Eastman Kodak workforce, is an attempt to buttress its business against successful inroads made recently by its Japanese rival, Fuji.
The US photographic products company also unveiled a partial retreat from digital photography, an area which one day could take over from the traditional silver halide film business on which it was founded. Digital photography is expected to cost Kodak $400 million in development spending and losses this year.
Kodak's actions are part of a plan to slash $1 billion from its annual costs by the end of the decade, and mark the latest in a round of job cuts that has continued in corporate America in spite of the generally high level of profitability among US companies.
Citicorp, the banking group, said last month it would reduce its workforce by 9,000, while Levi Strauss, the clothing group, announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs.
Yesterday's news had been foreshadowed by a sharp deterioration in Kodak's share of US film sales this year, and an earlier warning that it would take action to halt the slide.
The first hint of the extent of this came last month with the news that 200 middle and senior managers would lose their jobs, or one in five of the top management ranks. Despite yesterday's moves, Wall Street continued to express doubts about Kodak's ability to reverse the situation. The company's shares had fallen $4 11/16, or 7 per cent, to $61 5/16 by early afternoon in New York.
