Kodak & Technicolor layoffs - it's not all bad

If you have found it easy to get a parking space at either Kodak or Technicolor recently it's no surprise why. Even the press are writing about it.

Forget film, it is ink-jet printers for Kodak. I like their idea of cheaper cartridges, but the article with the stark headline (Kodak Plans to Cut Up to 3,000 More Jobs) does not go into detail about whether digital cinema will help save Kodak. They sure seem to be pulling out all stops to make the Odeon trial work and good luck to them. Before too long I'm sure they will even have players to share with Deluxe Europe and NORDIC. We await them keenly.

The article Technicolor Focuses on Future After Layoffs is subscription only, so I can only quote the introduction sentence: "In the wake of layoffs from its home entertainment division, Technicolor looks to the new high definition format of discs as a means to rebound in the DVD ..." So high definition DVDs will save Technicolor. But it won't save any jobs in Wales, according to this (non-subscription) article Pioneering Welsh DVD plant to shut, which tells us that:

Production at the unit, the first CD plant in Europe outside of Germany when it opened in 1984, is to be switched to a Polish plant at Piaseczno. Some 310 jobs will be lost as a result of the shutdown of the factory which had a reported capacity of 225,000 DVDs a day.

Another European facility in Luxembourg is also to close and the company’s US operations have not been spared with the announced shut down of a plant in Illinois and the threat of ultimate closure at its Camarillo HQ in California, which once employed 2000 people.

Technicolor blamed reduced growth in standard definition DVDs and demand for lower pricing for the closures.

I never even knew that my DVDs came from Wales. First Burberry closing factories in Wales and pulling out of BAFTA parties (Burberry drops Bafta party sponsorship in face of Welsh factory closure protest) and now this. But at least Kodak still sponsors the Academy Awards theatre: Kodak moments - coming to a colour ink jet printer near you soon!