HP laying off in Corvallis

Layoff Notices Issued

A Eugene television station KVAL reports that employees at HP's Corvallis plant began receiving layoff notices .

HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., declined to comment. In a statement, the company said its imaging and printing group announced in June its plans to “realign and streamline” by reducing its business units from five to three. Some parts of the imaging and printing group “will experience reductions while investments will be made in high growth segments of the business,” the company said.

HP is believed to employ about 2,500 people in Corvallis, and 1,000 in Vancouver, Wash. These two locations, along with a site in Boise, Idaho, are part of HP’s imaging and printing group.

Recent reports in The Oregonian and The Columbian have said HP plans to lay off as many as 300 people in Corvallis, and that some engineers and marketing employees in Vancouver could be told to find work with other HP divisions.

Property on the Market for Sale

HP is also reported to have put its 174-acre Vancouver campus up for sale, with plans to lease it back. HP declined to comment the matter.

Revenue for HP’s printing and imaging division was $14.9 million in the six months ending April 30, or nearly 26 percent of HP’s total revenue. The division was profitable, earning nearly $2.4 million from operations.

HP Lawsuits

Reports say that HP’s inkjet business is troubled, with falling sales of inkjet printers and cartridges.In addition HP faces several class action lawsuits around its inkjet business. Several actions in the United States and Canada allege that the company’s inkjet color printers shut down printing prematurely, preventing customers from using all the toner in the cartridge. Another suit alleges that HP designed its printers to unnecessarily use color ink in addition to black ink when printing black and white images and text.

European Commission Investigates

The European Commission has been investigating printer and supply sales in the European Union since May 2002, and HP is part of that investigation.