Kodak culls COO role and will cut further 1,000 jobs

Kodak has axed the role of president and chief operating officer Phil Faraci and will shed a further 1,000 jobs as it speeds up cost cutting efforts while the clock ticks on its Chapter 11 restructuring.

Faraci, who was paid $2.74m (£1.7m) last year including bonuses and stock awards, will not be replaced. Chief financial officer Antoinette McCorvey ($1.15m pay package) is also leaving, she will be replaced on an interim basis by Rebecca Roof, a managing director at Kodak's restructuring advisor AlixPartners.

Chairman and chief executive Antonio Perez said the company was "accelerating the creation of a sustainable cost structure" following last month's surprise announcement that it would sell off its Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging operations.

Kodak will now report under three business segments: Digital Printing & Enterprise; Graphics, Entertainment & Commercial Films; and a new operation comprising the up-for-sale Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging businesses.

Since entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January Kodak has laid off 2,700 workers worldwide. The further 1,000 jobs will go by the end of the year, saving the business around $330m.  

Philip Cullimore, Kodak regional managing director for EAMER, told PrintWeek that he did not expect there to be any major changes in its graphic arts businesses in the region.

He said: "The announcement comes as a result of the news we shared about the company that we will become as we emerge in the US from C11 - focused on print. To this end we do not expect the announcement to have any significant impact on the print-related resources that we have close to customers."

Kodak is expected to make a further announcement next week (19 September) about the latest situation in its protracted patent sell-off.