Fujifilm closing two plants in the US

[keithwms]

Sorry to relate some bad news...

http://iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/29/business/NA-FIN-COM-US-Fujifilm-Layoffs.php

WILLIAMSPORT, Maryland: Fujifilm Holdings Corporation says the shift to digital photography is prompting it to close film processing plants in Maryland and Indiana that employ a total of 230 people.

The Fujicolor Processing plant in Williamsport will close March 12, idling 125 workers.

The plant in Crawfordsville, Indiana, with 105 workers, will close March 19.

Fujicolor customer service director Darla Camman said the plants process film for Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and other U.S. retail stores. She said the work will be moved to other Fujicolor labs.

Camman said the plant closings will better position the company for the rapidly increasing shift from film to digital photography.

Fujifilm is based in Tokyo. Its U.S. headquarters in Valhalla, New York.

My understanding is that these are processing and not production facilities.

 

[david b]

These are processing plants. Not manufacturing plants.

As the article says, it processes the film for Walmart and others.

This has nothing to do with medium or large format film.

 

[tim_walls]

"Idling"? Is that the greatest euphemism ever, or does it actually have some sort of specific meaning that "laying off" or "making redundant" doesn't?

 

[AgX]

Over here once the term (in translation) `celebrating shifts´ was used.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I guess they'll just be sitting there waiting for the red light to change to green.

 

[copake_ham]

It's a bit of a bummer because I was hoping against hope that the "decline" in local processing was due to the "Wal-Mart effect" and that perhaps overall processing demand wasn't too far down.

I'm not sure how much this affects me personally. I still find plenty of "drug store outlets" for processing C-41. In fact, CVS is making a big expansion in NYC right now and their new store at 42nd and 3rd has a spanking new Frontier machine.

 

[PHOTOTONE]

It's a bit of a bummer because I was hoping against hope that the "decline" in local processing was due to the "Wal-Mart effect" and that perhaps overall processing demand wasn't too far down.

I'm not sure how much this affects me personally. I still find plenty of "drug store outlets" for processing C-41. In fact, CVS is making a big expansion in NYC right now and their new store at 42nd and 3rd has a spanking new Frontier machine.

I think the proliferation of one-hour mini-labs, mostly using Fuji made equipment is probably key in the decision to close a couple of the central processing locations. Consider, what "benefit" do you have by sending your film off to a central location over a well run mini-lab?

 

[keithwms]

Is that what these plants were doing? My guess is that they were doing E6 and b&w. I thought pretty much all c41 was done locally now.

 

[kraker]

I think the proliferation of one-hour mini-labs, mostly using Fuji made equipment is probably key in the decision to close a couple of the central processing locations. Consider, what "benefit" do you have by sending your film off to a central location over a well run mini-lab?

Most one-hour minilabs only process C-41 in 35mm. Whenever I drop off a 110, 120, 220 C-41 or E-6 film, or a 35 mm E-6, it will be sent off to a central processing location.

I guess that's also a reason for the closure; they won't get that many 110/120/220/E-6, so they can centralise it even further.

(Makes me wonder how many of those central processing locations there are in the US. I don't even know how many there are in my small country... I know of one central Fuji lab; perhaps there are some other brands out there as well...)

 

[jmcclure]

My local Wal-Mart charges the same price for 1 hr service as they do for the longer outside lab. The only difference is one set of prints as opposed to two sets. In my case I only want one set any way so I can choose the pics I wish to have either more of or larger versions of. With such a small difference in price 2 to 3 day service does not seem to make since.

 

[copake_ham]

Is that what these plants were doing? My guess is that they were doing E6 and b&w. I thought pretty much all c41 was done locally now.

I don't know about b&w - but it was a year and a half ago that Fujichrome moved all its E-6 processing over to Dwayne's - so you're not disadvantaged on that front.

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed with the quality of Dwayne's processing. But I found I still had a bunch of Fujichrome in the freezer. So I just bought a bunch of Fujichrome mailers from Hunt's Photo that will get processed by Dwayne's.