Polaroid to Split Into Three; Seven Officers Will Depart
Polaroid Corp. said Monday that it will separate its operations into three business groups in an effort to return the maker of instant film and digital imaging equipment to profitability.
Polaroid said each of the three units--consumer, commercial and new business--will be responsible for developing its own products and marketing them to customers.
The Cambridge-based company also said seven officers will leave, including Executive Vice President Joseph Oldfield, the head of its core film business who had been a leading candidate to become the company’s chief executive.
The job instead went to Gary DiCamillo on Dec. 1; his actions Monday were another step in a restructuring that will eliminate 1,600 jobs, cut back on research and development, and reduce the company’s payroll to about 9,500 in 1997 from 11,000 currently. DiCamillo’s challenge is to find more uses for an instant-film market it already dominates.
“This guy’s decisive,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Brenda Lee Landry. “It’s incredible how fast this man is moving.”
DiCamillo, 45, joined Polaroid from Black & Decker Corp., where he was credited with doubling sales and boosting domestic profit at the company’s U.S. power tools division. He is the first outsider to run Polaroid in the company’s 63-year history.
On Dec. 19, DiCamillo announced a plan to cut 1,300 jobs to reduce operating expenses by about $90 million this year. Last week, the company said 300 more jobs would be cut and that it would take a charge of $90 million to $100 million in the current quarter to pay for them.
The company’s employment peaked at about 20,000 in the late 1970s.
Polaroid stock fell 25 cents to close at $45.8758 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Each business group will be market oriented rather than product oriented to better provide customers what they want when they want it, DiCamillo said.
Polaroid’s intent is “to create a greater stream of new products designed to meet evolving needs of the imaging marketplace,” he said.
DiCamillo said he will temporarily head the consumer group until a permanent group head is named. The group will focus on revitalizing the Polaroid name with consumers and business users, as well as developing new markets in Eastern Europe, the Far East and Latin America.
Henry Ancona, previously executive vice president for electronic imaging systems, will be the executive vice president of the commercial group. This unit encompasses the worldwide commercial, technical and industrial businesses and its photographic and electronic imaging businesses, Polaroid said.
Robert Delahunt, formerly senior vice president for photographic imaging, will become senior vice president of the new-business group. This unit covers Polaroid’s medical and graphics imaging businesses as well as polarizers, sunglasses and holography.
Last week, Polaroid reported a fourth-quarter loss from operations of $500,000, or 1 cent a share, contrasted with a profit from operations of $83.9 million, or $1.82, in the year-earlier quarter.
