Kodak announces earnings up, but will reduce workers

WINDSOR — Rochester, N.Y.-based Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) today reported fourth-quarter 2002 earnings of $113 million or 39 cents per share, up from the previous year’s $206 million loss.

But with a weak sales forecast for 2003, the company also announced plans to reduce its work force by 3 percent, a net loss of 2,300 to 2,900 jobs. The figure includes the 500 to 700 cuts the company announced in November. Company officials said the bulk of the job losses would come from its photo-finishing operations in the United States and Western Europe.

Kodak employs about 1,800 at its 2,200-acre campus in Windsor. About 20 positions were eliminated locally in November — mostly through offers of early retirement — and company officials said today’s announcement of additional cutbacks would not affect the Windsor plant.

“Locally, we are not impacted by that announcement,´ said Lucille Mantelli, spokeswoman for the Windsor facility. “There will be no cutbacks here.”

Nationwide, employees received some good news with a company plan to issue a wage dividend equal to 7.15 percent of their 2002 pay.

Estimated at $110 million, the dividend will be paid on April 3 to approximately 28,600 employees in the United States. Colorado employees will share an estimated payment of $7 million. “It’s a pleasant surprise for the employees,” Mantelli said. “A wage dividend at 7.15 percent is the highest it’s been in the last seven years.”

Kodak’s year-end earnings reached $770 million, or $2.64 per share, compared to $76 million, or 26 cents per share, earned in 2001. The company expects operational earnings in first quarter 2003 to match last year’s 13 cents per share and expects 2003 earnings to range from $2.35 to $2.95. Near the end of trading today, Kodak shares were down more than 11 percent at $33.39.

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