Kodak Plans to Cut 3,000 Jobs in Restructuring

Eastman Kodak Co. announced Monday that it will trim its work force by 3,000 employees as part of a new restructuring that will reduce the photography giant’s involvement in business information products.

The Rochester-based company also said it will take a $375-million charge against its third-quarter earnings. The charge includes the cost of the restructuring as well as costs associated with a new joint venture for its Sterling Drug subsidiary and changes in Kodak’s overseas photofinishing facilities, Kodak spokesman Paul Allen said.

Kodak profits dropped 8% in the first half of 1991. The company blamed most of the decline on the weak U.S. economy and the Persian Gulf War, which have hurt travel and other leisure outlets for shooting photographs.

But the company has also been plagued by poor performance from its information businesses, which include divisions that make copiers, printers and computer software.

The job cuts will reduce Kodak’s 80,000 work force by roughly 4%. “We’re going to be taking a look at commercial markets and participating more selectively in those areas more directly related to commercial imaging, as opposed to information,” Allen said.

Kodak said it will combine its photography products and information businesses into one imaging group to better focus its operations. Allen would not specify what changes Kodak would make in its information businesses.

Kodak hopes to make most of the 3,000 cuts through a voluntary retirement incentive offered to its 55,000 employees who work in Rochester or in units that report to the Rochester base.

The company last cut its work force by about 7,500 workers, most through voluntary retirement, in a 1989 restructuring.