Xerox on steady course here
Toner plant exemplifies local commitment, says CEO Mulcahy.
(July,
2007) — Construction is wrapping up on a five-story,
120,000-square-foot plant that will “grow” a new type of toner for
Xerox Corp.
The
plant is being built in Webster, will mean 40 new jobs when it is
operational, and is an example of the printing and imaging company’s
commitment to Rochester, Chief Executive Anne Mulcahy said
Tuesday.Xerox, the world’s largest maker of photocopier toner, broke
ground on the plant in late 2005. Manufacturing — using chemicals to
grow toner from the molecular level instead of crushing and grinding
material to make it — is to begin this fall.”There’s a stability around
what we intend to do in this community from an employment perspective,”
Mulcahy said during an interview at Xerox Square in downtown
Rochester.”We’re very committed and we don’t sense there’s going to be
a lot of change there.”Xerox was founded in Rochester and historically
has been one of the area’s largest employers. But it moved its
corporate headquarters to Connecticut in 1969 and, during the company’s
financial troubles of 2001 and 2002, cut back from a local employment
level of more than 12,000. Xerox now employs about 7,600 in Monroe
County.In a wide-ranging discussion Tuesday, Mulcahy and President
Ursula Burns said local employment should remain steady for the
foreseeable future.”There will always be some ups and downs,” Mulcahy
said. “When we say stable, we don’t mean ‘to the person, to the job.’
Change can happen. (But) we don’t view it as dramatic change or
strategic change.”