Fujifilm trimming photo product production in Greenwood plant

GaryPageau ,
FUJIFILM Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc., located in Greenwood, SC, established in 1988.

Fujifilm North America advised employees at its Greenwood, S.C., manufacturing plant as part of a consolidation, FUJIFILM Manufacturing USA Inc. will close four Greenwood plants by September 2022, eliminating about 400 positions. The company said the work would move to other Fujifilm facilities and to third parties, according to the Greenwood Index-Journal. The 500-acre complex has been in operation in Greenwood since 1988, representing a nearly $1.8 billion investment by Fujifilm. There are more than 2.5 million square feet of manufacturing space.

At various times, the Greenwood plant boasted five state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities for the production of QuickSnap recyclable cameras, inkjet photographic paper, color photographic paper, digital printing plates, magnetic media, optical media, and more. In 2018, Fujifilm invested $3.9 million in the plant to assemble electrical parts for inkjet printer heads for a sister company, Fujifilm Dimatix.

Fujifilm will still maintain a presence in Greenwood with nearly 300 employees in other roles, including Warehousing & Distribution, the Personalized Photo Products Lab, Information Technology, Finance, Human Resources, Environmental Health & Safety, Purchasing, and Compliance, according to reports.

Todd Croker, president, Fujifilm Manufacturing North America.

“Market economic trends and a declining demand for many of the products manufactured in Greenwood challenged us to focus on how we adapt our efforts to continue to build a global, sustainable approach for Fujifilm,” said Todd Croker, president of FUJIFILM Manufacturing U.S.A. Inc., in a release announcing the closures. The COVID-19 global pandemic also played a role, he said.

“The impact of COVID-19 on our respective businesses reinforced to us that we need to be even more focused on enhancing our capabilities to serve our customers from different manufacturing and distribution points throughout the world,” said Croker. “This change provides us with more operating flexibility, and ensures we are optimizing the use of our available manufacturing capacity.”

The move continues the redeployment of resources by Fujifilm, which continues to invest in biotech and other ventures. In March, Fujifilm announced it would invest $2 billion to establish a large-scale cell culture production site in Holly Springs, N.C.

Below is a promotional video from the Fujifilm Greenwood site about the plants’ capabilities.