Fuji Photo Film Co. said Thursday it will spend $200 million to expand a South Carolina plant, allowing it to make film in the U.S. for the first time, shorten shipping times and improve customer service.
The expansion, which will result in 100 new jobs at the plant in Greenwood, S.C., also will increase capacity to make color photographic paper by 50 percent, to about 1.6 billion square feet annually.
The expansion is designed to help Fuji step up its competition against Eastman Kodak Co. by allowing it to respond quicker to customers and market trends. By cutting shipping costs and import tariffs, the plant also could give Fuji flexibility to cut prices, analysts said, though the company doesn’t have a history of competing by slashing prices.
“Any time you get added capacity in a slow-growing market, it makes the competition tougher,” said Morgan Stanley & Co. analyst Brenda Lee Landry. “Fuji is going to be banging on people’s doors trying to sell film.”
Fuji plans to begin shipping 35mm color film produced at its Greenwood plant by the end of the year, replacing film shipped from Netherlands. Fuji plans to make 100 million rolls of film annually at the plant.
