Carestream to close Windsor plant, lay off at least 210

WINDSOR – Carestream Health Inc. will close its 416-acre facility in Windsor and lay off 210 employees there, the company informed the state of Colorado on Monday.

In a letter to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Todd Clegg, Carestream’s interim president and CEO, said “210 current employees will be permanently released from their positions as their duties come to an end,’ with the first “reduction in force” to begin April 26 with the first group of 137 workers.

“Additional groups will be impacted,” Clegg wrote, “and we will provide additional information as we proceed. We currently anticipate that most impacted employees will be released by the end of August, with a couple of employees exiting in the fourth quarter of this year. A small number of positions currently located at this site are expected to remain with the company.”

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Carestream Health, based in Rochester, New York, is a worldwide provider of medical and X-ray imaging systems and precision contract coating services. It had listed its campus in the Great Western Industrial Park at 2000 Howard Smith Ave. in Windsor for sale last summer.

Clegg wrote that “employees were verbally notified of the potential terminations and closure during several town hall meetings held Nov. 23,” and “all affected employees are being notified of the plant closing as various production operations are ceased. At least 60 days written notification is being given to our workers of their individual employment loss as end dates are determined. The company has no seniority system that provides bumping rights, and no affected employee is represented by a union.”

Clegg’s notification to CDLE was in accordance with the terms of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The WARN law requires employers to provide employees who will experience employment loss with a 60-day notice prior to a layoff, although some exceptions apply. The WARN protects workers, their families and communities from the impact of mass layoffs.

Clegg’s letter was copied to Windsor Mayor Paul Rennemeyer and Ryan Rose, Weld County’s director of administration.

Among the first group to be laid off in April are 25 polyester operators and 23 sensitizing-manufacturing operators.

In a confidential offering memorandum from broker Cushman & Wakefield that was written in mid-2023 and obtained by BizWest from the town of Windsor through a Colorado Open Records Act request, the property at 2000 Howard Smith Ave. E. and 2000 Howard Smith Ave. W. in Windsor was described as containing more than 1.3 million square feet of space, plus water rights and 305 acres of potential aggregate.

Carestream in August 2022 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, telling a bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, that its $1.03 billion in debt was not sustainable in light of long-term headwinds in the medical-imaging industry. A month later, Carestream announced that the court had confirmed the company’s “prepackaged” restructuring plan, in which Carestream planned to successfully complete its recapitalization process and emerge from Chapter 11 by eliminating approximately $470 million of its debt.

Even so, last May the Moody’s rating service downgraded Carestream’s credit rating, citing “weaker than expected” operating performance and concerns over its high reliance on the film business, which its analysts predicted “would remain in structural decline for the foreseeable future.”

Carestream has its roots in the health division of Eastman Kodak Corp. (NYSE: KODK), the iconic manufacturer of film and cameras. Kodak Health Group was sold in 2007 to Toronto-based private equity firm Onex Corp. (TSX: ONEX) for $2.35 billion in cash. Around 8,100 employees transferred to Onex, and Kodak Health Group was renamed Carestream Health.

The Windsor facility survived damage from the 2008 Windsor tornado and got a boost in 2016 when Kodak Alaris, a company independent of Kodak that was founded two years earlier by Kodak retirees based in the United Kingdom, announced that it would close its photographic-paper factory in Harrow, England, the suburban London site where George Eastman built his first facility outside the United States in 1891, and outsource the manufacturing of that paper to Windsor.

Kodak Alaris still has production facilities in Windsor, and signage at its building advertises Kodak Moments, which provides souvenir imaging systems and services for destination attractions such as theme parks, resorts and cruise lines.