Most employe

In one sense, the populari-
ty of their product has helped
hasten the demise of the pro-
cessing lab on Keith Road
which will put about 90 per-
sons out of work by the end
of March.

According to Auguste
Bolte, the Director of Cor-
porate Relations for Kodak
Canada, the closure of the
piant has been brought about
by the declining volume of
film being sent in for process-
ing because of the “‘intense

By ANDY FRASER

competitive pressure’’ of
other processing operations.

Bolte says that back in
1961, when the North Van-
couver and Western Canada
operation first opened, rever-
sal, or slide, and movie film
was the only branch of the
operations. However, over
the years, there has been a
huge increase in the amount
of color print film on the

’

es
wind up unemplo

WHAT HAS been developing at the Kodak plant
on Keith Road over the past few years, hasn’t
always been film.

market. And since the color
print film can be quickly pro-
cessed by firms other than
Kodak, coupled with the

drop in the use of slide and ©

movie film, it meant a cor-
responding drop in-volume of
film for processing at the
Western Canadian plant.

te wasn’t until 1981 that
the Keith Road operation
started processing print film
and in the short time since
then, their needed share of
the market has been deeply
eroded, forcing’ Kodak
Canada to make the decision

See Kodak —
Page A&

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; - ea ee NEWS phote lan Benth
KODAK PLANT manager Hank Ballou had nothing to smile about this week, with the an-
wouncement the processing plant will close. Ballou, who has been at the plant since 1960, poses
with the soon-to-be liled processing machines.

Poa