Kodak braces for UK pension woes

Reuters reports.

The bill is coming due for years of generous pensions and other benefits that the photography company promised employees, especially in the UK, where it has manufacturing operations dating to the 1800s and still supports thousands of retirees.

Whatever Kodak's fate as it grapples with a global shift to digital photography, five consecutive years of annual net losses and a consistent cash drain as it spends on new businesses, the UK pension problems are not going away.

Meanwhile, Eastman Kodak announced the creation of a new and simpler business structure, designed to increase productivity, reduce costs and accelerate its transformation into a digital company that delivers sustainable profitability and creates value for its stakeholders, Business Wire says.

Under the new structure, the company reduced its number of segments from three to two - the commercial segment and the consumer segment - which will both report into a newly created chief operating office.

The chief operating office will be led by Philip Faraci, who will continue to serve as Kodak's president and COO, and by Laura Quatela, who was recently named, alongside Faraci, as president and COO of Kodak.

Previously, Kodak's business segments were divided into its traditional film and photo paper products, consumer digital imaging and graphic communications, which included printing equipment, Bloomberg Businessweek writes.

Kodak says it is not announcing job cuts as part of this reorganisation. The company has been reported to be preparing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing if it can't sell a trove of digital-imaging patents.