Rochester’s Kodak Alaris celebrated 2014 as being its first full year as a company over the weekend. Alaris is an independent company now owned by Kodak's British employee pension fund and uses the Kodak branding.
The official first day as a new company was September 3rd, 2013.
On Saturday, the company launched "Plank Owner," a new employee recognition initiative - modeled after the Navy where crew members are honored as “plank owners" at a vessel's commissioning. Kodak Alaris' recognized employees who were part of the "crew" on its first day, September 3, 2013.
Dolores Kruchten is President of Kodak Alaris' Document Imaging division. "So, today's the day that we do a little bit of recognition, for not only the great work that has been done, but the exciting future that we have."
Kruchten told WXXI how the new company carries on the old brand.
"We do have the good fortune of being able to leverage into perpetuity the brand Kodak. So, our name, Kodak Alaris, private company, U-K owned, but we continue to be able to have access and use of the Kodak brand name."
“It's exciting to be able to take part of the strong heritage from Kodak, but really build a new identity and a new company as we move forward."
Kodak Alaris has two businesses. One is the Personalized Imaging Group, with photography products, paper and kiosks. Kruchten says one of its most promising products is an app that helps you connect your mobile devices to a printer, so you can easily create a hard copy of your photos.
The other division, headed by Kruchten, Document Imaging, primarily focuses on scanners - from high speed business models to those for your desktop.
"People have great information at their fingertips, with the explosion of data today. You get it in paper form, you can get it by email, and you can get it on social media. How you connect all that information together, is really what the document imaging focus is on."
Kruchten says Kodak Alaris is here for the long term. She expects no major hiring or firing for now. New jobs would be high tech work, and be here in Rochester.
"Initially, we're looking to be very stable, and as we build on our strategy, we certainly look for that to strengthen, and with Rochester being such a core foundation for us, we certainly look at those additions in Rochester."
Kruchten started her career at Kodak, and said she's excited about the future at Kodak Alaris, and helping to grow that business.
"We have to be successful for a very long time. This is long term investment, so the opportunity to have that level of control, that level of focus, is very exciting."