*NEWS*LEXMARK:RISE OF WORLDWIDE WORKERS

Lexmark reports rise in number of workers worldwide
Lexmark
International’s 2006 annual report is out and contains several
interesting tidbits of information about Lexington’s largest private
employer.First, the company’s employment base grew from 13,600
worldwide at the end of 2005 to about 14,900 at the end of 2006,
according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.The
increases, primarily in manufacturing and production operations, offset
actions in last year’s restructuring plan to eliminate or transfer to
lower-wage countries more than 1,400 jobs. The plan affected about 200
employees at its headquarters in Lexington.The proportion of the
company’s domestic employment fell from about 30.9 percent in 2005 to
26.2 percent in 2006.Also in the report, the company wrote it plans to
sell its facility in Rosyth, Scotland, sometime in the first quarter of
this year.That facility was closed as part of the restructuring.

In other Lexmark news:
•
Executive Vice President Paul Rooke, who heads the company’s laser
printer business, fielded quite a few questions at a recent investor
conference about the company’s inkjet business, which has struggled in
recent quarters. (Najib Bahous, who heads Lexmark’s inkjet business,
was not at the conference.)Speaking at the Goldman Sachs 2007
Technology Investment Symposium, Rooke was asked about the potential
effect on the company from Kodak’s entrance into the inkjet market and
how the company responds to questions from some observers about whether
it should exit the inkjet business.Specifically, a person in attendance
asked whether Kodak’s planned model of offering higher-priced printers
compared with its competition but lower-cost supplies would catch on
with consumers.”Time will tell whether that’s what the customer wants,”
Rooke said. “We’ve been in this market a long time … and what we
continue to hear from our customers is they want better value hardware
over lower-cost supplies.”Now if that changes, obviously Lexmark and
others can easily change that model.”But Rooke did not show flexibility
on the question about whether Lexmark should exit inkjet.”Everything
we’re about is about improving our inkjet business,” he said. “That’s
why (our) investments in expanding products, expanding customers,
building the brand are focused on doing just that.”
• The company’s
latest color laser printer lines, which were researched and developed
in Lexington, have received industry acclaim recently.
The C530,
C770, C772 and C920 series all received Editor’s Choice awards from
Better Buys for Business, according to a statement by Lexmark.
The C770 series also received a four-star rating from PC Magazine.
The
recognition “really is a particularly strong story for us to be able to
talk with customers about,” said company spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick.The
color laser product segment has been one of several focused on by the
company recently, as it seeks to align its product portfolio with
high-growth product and market segments.