“Carestream health focuses on international growth, community - The Tribune” |
| Carestream health focuses on international growth, community - The Tribune Posted: 07 Nov 2010 04:22 PM PST A thriving company housed in the same buildings on the spacious campus that put Windsor on the map 40 years ago just might be the most well-kept secret in northern Colorado. People may think it's virtually a ghost town out at the Kodak Colorado site on the east side of Windsor, but don't tell that to the folks at Carestream Health Inc. Recent news that four of the main buildings at Kodak will soon be demolished just makes Carestream Health that much more relevant at the site. Carestream Health is a $2.5 billion company that employs more than 500 people at its Windsor site in the same buildings where Kodak employed more than 3,000 people at the peak of its operations in the early 1980s. Carestream Health is a leader in medical films (media) and digital imaging. In 2007, Onex Corporation of Canada purchased Eastman Kodak's Health Group and established Carestream Health as an independent company. Ironically, 95 percent of the employees at Carestream Health in Windsor used to work for Kodak in Windsor. Kodak's brand is still used on selected products under a special licensing agreement. Christopher Schmachtenberger is one of those former Kodak employees now at Carestream Health. Schmachtenberger, the worldwide director of medical film and printing solutions media manufacturing, began working for Kodak in Rochester, N.Y., in 1980, before transferring to Kodak Colorado in Windsor in 1992. "I think we're a major employer, and we're a major manufacturer," said Schmachtenberger as he and the Carestream Health Leadership Team toured the company's facilities with Windsor Now on Thursday. "I hope that people see us as a good neighbor both in keeping employment in the area, and being a good environmental partner. We want to be seen as part of the community." Carestream Health's Colorado site in Windsor is the single largest manufacturing site serving the medical films business. Schmachtenberger said Carestream Health recently expanded the scope of products it produces at the Windsor site to include dental, nondestructive testing and molecular imaging media. Carestream Health isn't in a holding pattern because of the recession. Schmachtenberger said Carestream Health is also expanding its imaging portfolio by actively working with several clients worldwide to produce products in fields not related to the medical imaging industry such as LCD television and computer screens from its polyester plant, where about 100 of the 500 people are employed 24/7, 355 days a year. A roll of polyester film weighs 5,000 pounds and extends from one to five miles long. The polyester machine can make enough film to cover a football field in 24 minutes. Carestream Health makes enough film to go around the Earth 11⁄4 times in one year, or about 30,000 miles worth of film, said Todd Arndorfer, the manager for manufacturing business development. "Colorado is a very important site for us," Schmachtenberger said. "Just this year, we have made investments of several million dollars in our utilities infrastructure and in both our coating operation and polyester operation to improve the machines and also prepare us for future products that we're going to do." Carestream Health sits on more than 400 acres of where Kodak used to do its business and performs its business operations using 1.3 million square feet of space, which includes the coating and polyester facilities. Carestream Health owns about 40 acres at the Windsor site for its logistics operations and about 380 acres for manufacturing and utilities operations. "We have a significant presence on the plant site," Schmachtenberger said. "Right now, the land is probably 50-50 between us and Kodak." Windsor is one of six manufacturing sites that make up Carestream Health with the others being in Rochester, N.Y., Mexico, Oregon, China and Berlin, Germany. "We have a diverse customer base. We have customers in practically 150 countries around the world," Schmachtenberger said. Schmachtenberger said Carestream Health's overall business plan is to take the assets that it has, primarily its employees and equipment, and leverage those into two things — gaining market share and entering new business development. "We are working with several clients doing everything from commodities to other imaging materials," Schmachtenberger said. "On the other end of the spectrum, we're doing some very high-tech materials for the high-tech electronics and energy business. We're entering many, many businesses. We're probably the only company that has that perfect marriage between the media side and the equipment side." Schmachtenberger said Carestream Health is also a very large exporter. More than 80 percent of everything that is coated from a health imaging standpoint is exported to other countries, he said. "For instance, I have a manufacturing operation in China. I'm not doing it for labor savings, I'm doing it because when you have a presence there, that's the best place to do business for China," Schmachtenberger said. "We're a very large exporter of everything that we make here." Schmachtenberger said ultimately the majority of film is going to transition into some form of digital. "It's going to take a significant amount of time to occur, and part of our strategy is to be the highest quality producers so we can take more and more of the market so that customers can come to us," Schmachtenberger said. "We make a great product. They can count on its quality, and we always deliver." Arndorfer, the manager for manufacturing business development, said it's important to realize that hospitals and imaging centers that convert to digital technology don't completely get rid of film. "In some locations, the patient wants to have a piece of film to take home," Arndorfer said. "In some locations, they want to archive the copy of the image for legal reasons." The beauty of Carestream Health making its home in Windsor and hiring so many former Kodak employees is that those people didn't have to leave the Windsor site, or transfer to another city or state to find work elsewhere. Carestream Health employs a diverse base of talented people. "We have operators, mechanics, technicians, engineers. We have chemists that work here in our lab," said Jason Payne, a technical manager at Carestream Health. "Our technicians tend to have a wealth of mechanical and electrical experience. I like to joke that some of them probably have the equivalent of four bachelor's degrees of experience. They just have a wide range of experiences. Safety is the highest level of training around here. Obviously, with big machinery and big equipment in the dark, it is very important to us and we take it very seriously." Mike Hass, the Carestream Health site manager in Windsor, used to work for Kodak for 32 years. "A lot of us here have worked in these operations for many years and had great careers with Kodak," Haas said. "We really appreciate the investment that Carestream Health has made in us. We've expanded our presence on the site. We put money into improving our operations so we have higher capabilities than we have had in the past. The employees really feel good about working here." Hass said the employees who transitioned from Kodak to Carestream Health are doing similar jobs. "We divested as employees with the operation. We have a dedicated trainer to help the employees move onto the next job," Hass said. "As we bring in new product, they have to learn new products. When we were Kodak, it was very focused on the traditional product. Now we're out investigating a broad range of product, which is exciting." Arndorfer is also a former Kodak employee who appreciates not having to find a job elsewhere once Kodak started reducing its work force. "I've been here 11 years now. I really enjoy this area," Arndorfer said. "It's refreshing to see. There are a lot of companies shipping jobs offshore. Even though we export 80 percent of our product, we're still manufacturing right here in Colorado."
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