Carestream Health recently announced it will close its Windsor facility, and hundreds of workers will be laid off.
Rochester, New York-based Carestream develops x-ray technology and other medical imaging systems. Carestream was previously known as the medical imaging unit of Kodak Health Group,
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“The company submitted what's known as a WARN filing with the state of Colorado in late February with a supplemental filing just last week,” said BizWest Editor and Publisher Chris Wood.
The state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires employers to give workers two months' notice before a layoff.
Closing the Windsor plant will cut 236 jobs. A few positions will be transferred to other locations. But why the closure?
“The company cited reduced production volumes and some opportunities to streamline shipment between sites and the high cost of the site infrastructure in Windsor,” Wood said. “Carestream overall has seen some tough times; the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2022. And at that time, it told the bankruptcy court in Delaware that its $1 billion in debt was not sustainable. It eventually emerged from bankruptcy after shedding about $450 million to $470 million in debt.”
The closure marks the continued slow decline of the presence of the Eastman Kodak Company in Windsor.
The economic effects of the company’s losses in northern Colorado have been spread out over time. But the closure still deals a psychological blow, as many Kodak retirees still live in the Windsor area.
“Kodak once employed about 3,500 workers in the town, but it started shedding jobs many years ago,” Wood said. “The company never adequately prepared for the transition to digital photography.”
Wood quoted a 2012 article from Forbes magazine: “There are few corporate blunders as staggering as Kodak’s missed opportunities in digital photography, a technology that it invented.”
Carestream was sold to a private equity firm in 2007 for $2.3 billion. With Carestream’s closure, a division called Kodak Alaris is the last remaining vestige of Kodak in Windsor. The company sign in Windsor carries the Kodak Moments brand and provides souvenir photo products to consumers and retailers.
The first round of layoffs in Windsor will affect 137 workers and is set to begin April 26.
“And the company just last week announced a second round affecting 19 workers that will begin on May 24,” Wood said. “I don't think it will take them very long to wind down operations at the plant.”
