Polaroid Set to Eliminate 400 Salaried Jobs

Polaroid Corp., burdened by the strong dollar and flat demand for amateur photography products, said Wednesday that it will cut up to 400 salaried employees in a “selective voluntary severance program” that will be the first in a series of cost-cutting and reorganization measures.

The Cambridge, Mass., company said it will give severance bonuses to up to 400 salaried employees who volunteer to leave and are found to have jobs that can be eliminated. Some employees might be laid off if fewer than 400 volunteer to leave, a spokesman said.

Earnings Plummeted

Spokeswoman Maria Wilhelm said Polaroid also plans to cut a “quite small” number of hourly workers in secretarial positions and other “overhead” jobs, but will not eliminate any production workers. The company is not cutting production, she added.

Polaroid’s earnings plummeted by nearly half last year from the year before, to $25.7 million, as research and development expenses were increased because of plans to further expand a new product line in electronics. Last year, the company began marketing computer floppy disks and also entered markets for videocassettes and home video-recording equipment.

Analysts said they consider the work-force reduction program to be modest, noting that Polaroid had reduced its worldwide staff to 13,402 at the end of 1984 from its peak of 20,884 in 1978.

“Polaroid’s in a transition year and doing about as well as anybody expected,” said James I. Magid, an analyst with L. F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin in New York.

The company has been particularly penalized by the strong dollar because it produces much of its equipment in the United States but receives more than 40% of its revenue from overseas sales.

In a letter to employees, Polaroid President I. M. Booth said the steps were designed to improve the company’s profitability “in today’s extremely competitive world.”

Polaroid posted revenue of $1.27 billion for the fiscal year ended last Dec. 31, compared to $1.25 billion in 1983. In 1983, net income was $49 million.