Eastman Kodak to close Durham center and eliminate 48 jobs

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the call center employees worked for Qualex, an Eastman Kodak subsidiary. They were employees of the parent company.

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Eastman Kodak is closing its technical response center in Durham and laying off 48 employees.

The center provides support for retail customers that operate the company's picture kiosks.

Kodak filed a notice late last week with the N.C. Department of Commerce under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

The WARN notice said Kodak Eastman is outsourcing the work done at the Durham center. Its closure date is June 11.

Of the 48 employees being let go, four are customer service supervisors and 44 are field engineer positions, according to the WARN notice.

Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak is outsourcing the work to Datrose, a company that is expected to hire in the Triangle as it takes over the work, said Chris Veronda, a spokesman for Kodak.

After the center's closure, Kodak will employ about 50 people at its facility in Durham, Veronda said.

Some of those people are Kodak employees and others work for Qualex, a film-processing subsidiary that is also based in Durham.

Veronda said Kodak has no plans at this time to make further reductions to its staff in Durham.

Qualex once employed as many as 550 people in Durham but has been reducing staff as advances in technology made its services less in demand.