Kodak announced plans to axe 600 jobs in the UK and close its factory in Nottinghamshire yesterday; admitting that it was bowing out to consumer trends.

Sales in digital photography are rising while film camera sales have witnessed a downward spiral. Forty million digital cameras were sold last year while film cameras came in second best at a purchase rate of 30 million.

Camera giant, Kodak says that the changes were to be expected. In January the company announced that it would reduce its global facilities by about a third in over three years.

The factory in Annesley, Nottinghamshire, the long-standing manufacturer of the well-known orange and black packaged film is bearing the brunt of the reorganisation and will be shut.

There will be 350 redundancies together with a downsizing of 250 employees at its Harrow site which employs 1350 staff and will become the new UK headquarters.

Further movement will be seen with 300 staff moving from Kodak House in Hemel Hempstead to Harrow.

Peter Blackwell, managing director of Kodak in the UK, said:

“The simple fact is that customer and consumer preferences are changing and demand for traditional products such as film and paper has fallen with the rising popularity of digital photography.

“These have been difficult decisions to take, and are no reflection on the highly-valued work performed by our employees. Sadly, Kodak has to respond to customer and consumer trends changing so dramatically.”

The unions, however, are concerned that this isn’t the end of the story for Kodak workers in the UK and are predicting that the company will shortly cease all manufacturing in Britain.

Amicus gave warning that the future of the Harrow site, the largest of Kodak’s British plants may be in danger.

Speaking to HRZone a spokesperson for the union said: “We are deeply suspicious of Kodak’s intentions. We do understand the economic environment of this. But we think it’s the beginning of something larger. The long-term future of the Harrow plant is under question.

“They will be making paper which will then be shipped to America for another element of the production process and it will then come back again to be finished in the UK. This seems rather inefficient. We believe they are taking this piecemeal approach to limit the reaction of the workforce.”