The Kettering site is the company’s largest other than its headquarters in Rochester, N.Y.
This Kettering business has seen a slow decline in the past five years in job availability and finances.
So much so, the company announced Monday that it is selling its Kettering-based Prosper inkjet business.
Here are five things you should know about Kodak and its local footprint:
1. Kodak was founded in 1880 and was a very powerful force in the print and movie film industries. It has become somewhat of a household name and is known globally for its imaging innovations.
2. The company has had a division at Miami Valley Research Park in Kettering more than 30 years. The business started thriving for over a century after its creation in the 1880’s. The 1990’s is when the business started to struggle. We were coming into a digital age and Kodak was not able to accommodate to the change, which resulted in job losses around the world. Since 2012, 3,500 employees in the U.S have been laid off. There were only about 450 employees working at the Kettering location at this time.
3. In 2013, Kodak was able to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy. At this time, the Kettering division of Kodak was developing new technology. They actually came back from bankruptcy with a new strategy, which you can read more on that here.
4. The new technology was completed in 2015 at the Kettering facility with assistance from the staff in Rochester, N.Y. The company was only able to employ 400 workers in the Kettering location. More information on this story can be found here.
5. The achievements were not able to save the Kettering division. The company announced earlier this year that it was selling the Kettering-based Prosper inkjet business. No one is sure what will happen to the 400 jobs that have been at this location from this sale. There is more information on the current state of this business here.
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