Kodak Forms Imaging Group for Key Units

Eastman Kodak Co. said Friday that it was overhauling the heart of its business, combining consumer photo operations, high-tech commercial imaging and international business.

The huge new section will be called the Imaging Group.

“Our challenge is to restructure the resources of these groups into a customer-focused team,” said Leo Thomas, group vice president and president of the Imaging Group.

The new group at Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak combines consumer photography, office imaging products, professional photography, printing and publishing, and entertainment imaging. Another unit, Sterling Drug, sells pharmaceuticals. Kodak bought it for $5 billion in 1988.

The company also owns a chemical business.

The Imaging Group will also be organized under regional lines, with North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa; Asia and Latin America divisions.

The shuffle revealed little about how the group plans to bolster its profit, but analysts said the company seems to be making progress with its restructuring.

In the third quarter, the company lost $118 million, compared to $206 million a year ago. Quarterly revenue advanced to $4.93 billion from $4.78 billion.

“It continues to signal a change in corporate mentality,” said Gary Schneider, a senior managing director in equity research at Bear, Stearns & Co.

The company offered early-retirement incentives in late summer, persuading twice as many workers to leave the company as the 3,000 it had hoped would accept packages.

Its current work force is about 80,000.