Wood: Carestream closure opens old wounds

Closure of Carestream Health Inc.’s Windsor operation could be a fairly typical story of corporate cutbacks and layoffs. While the loss of 236 high-wage manufacturing jobs is never a positive occurrence, such a cut can have limited effect on the economy overall.

But, sometimes, such a closure brings with it an outsized psychological impact. That’s the case with Carestream, as the company has been one of the last remaining vestiges of Eastman Kodak Co. in Windsor.

Carestream on Feb. 26 filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice with the state, announcing the closure of the plant, with 210 jobs to be eliminated. Another 26 employees will be transferred to other Carestream locations.

Carestream cited “reduced production volumes in some operations, opportunities to streamline shipment between sites, and the high cost of the site infrastructure,” as reasons for the Windsor closure.

Carestream, which produces medical-imaging systems, was spawned in 2007, when private-equity firm Onex Corp. paid $2.35 billion for Kodak’s Health Group. The sale came after massive job cuts by Kodak worldwide over a period of years, as the company struggled to adapt to digital photography and imaging systems.

Kodak’s sprawling Windsor campus — along the aptly named Eastman Park Drive — once employed more than 3,500 workers. It would be difficult to overstate how entwined Kodak once was in the Northern Colorado economy, with the company’s workers hailing from throughout the region. Windsor’s geographic position meant that Kodak’s employees might live in Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland, Windsor or other communities.

Lucille Mantelli, the longtime director of communications for Kodak Colorado Division, was involved in many regional business organizations, and Northern Colorado nonprofits benefited from the company’s philanthropy, including Kodak employees volunteering for many nonprofits. Donations were made to the Windsor library and fire department. Kodak paid for improvements to the town’s sewer system. Eastman Park provides recreational amenities for the town.

Many Kodak retirees continue to live in the region. For them, the loss of Carestream undoubtedly evokes melancholy and wistful memories.

And it reopens old wounds that had not yet healed from more than a decade ago, as Kodak’s downsizing in Windsor was in full swing. Adopting a strategy that residents of Rochester, New York — headquarters of Kodak — knew all too well, Kodak “deconstructed” numerous buildings in Windsor, whittling down from 3 million square feet of space.

The company also sold buildings and vacant land to The Broe Group out of Denver for its Great Western Industrial Park. Carestream’s campus itself is for sale, as reported by BizWest in January.

Today, Kodak Alaris — a separate company from Eastman Kodak Co. — remains the final remnant of Kodak’s operations in Windsor, with a sign highlighting Kodak Moments. Company officials did not return inquiries from BizWest in January, so it’s unclear how — or whether — Carestream’s closure will affect the Alaris operation.

Christopher Wood can be reached at 303-630-1942 or cwood@bizwest.com

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