Eastman Kodak Co. has begun a project that will give the Columbus plant the ability to manufacture advanced digital printing plates.
The cost for construction, which began in mid-December, is $3.7 million, according to Columbus building permits. But the total expenditure will be higher, Chris Veronda, spokesman for Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak, said today.
“That’s just for the building,” he said. “It’s certainly north of that for the total project because there’s going to be a substantial amount of equipment that goes in there, too. But we’re not putting a price tag on it.”
The Columbus facility, located at 1 Polychrome Parkway in Corporate Ridge Industrial Park, completed a $15 million expansion in February 2009. That project added 26,000 square feet to the plant, giving it a total of 276,000 square feet.
“That was clearly about expanding capacity there,” Veronda said. “This more is focused on productivity and giving capabilities to produce the latest line of plates.”
The local plant has just over 300 people on its payroll, up about 60 jobs over the past year, Veronda said, although no major hiring is expected from the latest project.
“We’ve consolidated production of offset digital plates for the Americas market in Columbus, so it serves all of North, South and Central America,” he said.
The digital plates made in Columbus are used in offset printing presses, Veronda said. Customers include newspapers and printing companies.
Eastman Kodak employs about 20,000 globally. As the 2009 expansion in Columbus was unveiled, the company announced a restructuring to eliminate several thousand jobs.
“There’s always continuing adjustments as some businesses grow and others shrink,” Veronda said. “But no major restructuring is going on” currently.
Kodak, which reports its fourth-quarter and full-year 2010 earnings next week, lost $43 million, or 16 cents per share, in the third quarter. That was improved from a $111 million loss in the same quarter of 2009, however.
The company in October said it expects 2010 operating earnings in the range of $350 million to $450 million. That’s on sales of $7.5 billion to $7.7 billion.
Aside from positive cash generation, improving profit margins and operational improvements, Eastman Kodak Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Antonio Perez remarked during the quarterly earnings release in October that “our third-quarter performance was marked by continued acceleration in our strategic digital growth businesses.”
