Kodak Price Increase and Hiring Spree 2023: What Do You Want Kodak to Focus on Moving Forward?

[koraks]

"Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam."

 

[Agulliver]

Get the greed out of the office, fast. Start doing business as it once was understood, long term sustainability, integrity, customer first, price competitive. No 'raw material/labor cost" BS.

Have you tried buying laboratory and analytical grade chemicals in the last three years?

Hint: You clearly have not.

I'm small fry in that I don't order chemicals for a photographic manufacturer. I am responsible for 15 secondary (high) school laboratories. I have the choice of buying from educational suppliers and the same sort of chemical suppliers/manufacturers that Eastman Kodak use. Prices have doubled or tripled even on common chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and industrial denatured alcohol. Lead times have gone up from a couple of days to up to six months - for common chemicals used by many different sectors the world over. Some of the stuff Eastman Kodak, Fuji and the other players use aren't used in any other industry or sector.

 

[MattKing]

I'm small fry in that I don't order chemicals for a photographic manufacturer.

I hate to break it to you, but Eastman Kodak is also, relatively speaking, "small fry" when it comes to priority and access when it comes to many of the components they source.
Where once they were the largest customers for things that are used for both photographic manufacturing and many other purposes, they are now small volume customers, who have to compete with the bigger players.
A lot of the things they need have to be ordered months in advance, and particularly in the last three years, an order is no guarantee that fulfillment will happen when expected. And as a low volume customer, the prices are far from advantageous.

 

[Agulliver]

I hate to break it to you, but Eastman Kodak is also, relatively speaking, "small fry" when it comes to priority and access when it comes to many of the components they source.
Where once they were the largest customers for things that are used for both photographic manufacturing and many other purposes, they are now small volume customers, who have to compete with the bigger players.
A lot of the things they need have to be ordered months in advance, and particularly in the last three years, an order is no guarantee that fulfillment will happen when expected. And as a low volume customer, the prices are far from advantageous.

100% this. I just happen to be even smaller fry, but I do have access to the chemical marketplace so I can see first hand some of what's happening.

It's like this with cassette and reel to reel tape too. The substrate onto which the magnetic material is coated has gone up in price, especially for a humble C90 cassette it's barely worth trying right now. Gamma ferric oxide, the main ingredient in the magnetic coating, has skyrocketed in price and plummeted in availability. But all most in the cassette/reel community see is doubling of prices and within that bubble they moan about gouging and being priced out of the hobby. And moan "Oh I could get a cassette for under a dollarpound in 1978"....

What is it with most humans and the bigger picture? Eastman-Kodak (and the other film manufacturers) are unable to do anything about the situation with raw materials and chemicals. They aren't the major industry figures they once were. The global supply chain is still screwy and unpredictable. If we want Kodak film now it required Kodak to purchase materials many months ago and hope they arrived in time for Rochester to work it's magic and manufacture film. Kodak would have been subject to whatever the market prices were back when they placed their orders...and to delays. But nah, it's easier to say they're just gouging us.

 

[koraks]

What is it with most humans and the bigger picture?

What seems to play a role is that many people have an odd bias against 'corporations'. Don't get me wrong - it's good to be critical, and a lot of mess has been and continues to be made by businesses. But many people have a form of innate distrust of everything that's commercially oriented and employs more than 100 people or so. Somehow, in the eyes of these people, as soon as someone becomes part of a larger commercial organization, they become part of some sort of diabolic organism that's out to destroy humanity. I guess.

 

[Don_ih]

many people have an odd bias against 'corporations

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, all evil organizations in movies and television shows have been companies. Well, I guess a few were terrorist organizations. Prior to the fall of the USSR, most evil groups were "foreign" entities.

 

[foc]

Prior to the fall of the USSR, most evil groups were "foreign" entities.

Ah, but what is foreign to one viewpoint can be home to the other........

 

[koraks]

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, all evil organizations in movies and television shows have been companies. Well, I guess a few were terrorist organizations. Prior to the fall of the USSR, most evil groups were "foreign" entities.

Yeah, I think that explains part of it. There's of course also the environmental movement, the whole 1% thing, credit crunch, etc. etc. Like I said, lots of valid reasons to be critical, there's that for sure, so I can sort of relate. I'd just like to caution against counterproductive prejudice.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

100% this. I just happen to be even smaller fry, but I do have access to the chemical marketplace so I can see first hand some of what's happening.

It's like this with cassette and reel to reel tape too. The substrate onto which the magnetic material is coated has gone up in price, especially for a humble C90 cassette it's barely worth trying right now. Gamma ferric oxide, the main ingredient in the magnetic coating, has skyrocketed in price and plummeted in availability. But all most in the cassette/reel community see is doubling of prices and within that bubble they moan about gouging and being priced out of the hobby. And moan "Oh I could get a cassette for under a dollarpound in 1978"....

What is it with most humans and the bigger picture? Eastman-Kodak (and the other film manufacturers) are unable to do anything about the situation with raw materials and chemicals. They aren't the major industry figures they once were. The global supply chain is still screwy and unpredictable. If we want Kodak film now it required Kodak to purchase materials many months ago and hope they arrived in time for Rochester to work it's magic and manufacture film. Kodak would have been subject to whatever the market prices were back when they placed their orders...and to delays. But nah, it's easier to say they're just gouging us.

When I worked as a tech for Univac division of Sperry Rand back in the late 1960s on their computers, we had a Fastrand drum storage medium that weighed as much as a small car. The surface of the two approx 18" diameter drums were coated with nickel-cobalt both of which are magnetic. There would be dozens of spring loaded read/write heads that would "fly" over the surface, rounded to meet the arc of the drum. Fairly often, a head with hit the surface, scratching it. We'd have to shut down the unit, open it up and find the burrs. Then we'd file them down smooth with volcano pumice stones and special sandpaper and delete those sectors from the system software as the magnetic properties for that small area would be lost.

I wonder what nickel-cobalt costs today if anyone even uses it anymore?

https://retrocomputingforum.com/t/1963-sperry-rand-univac-fastrand-magnetic-drum/2929

 

[braxus]

Edit. Erased- Doesn't apply.

What seems to play a role is that many people have an odd bias against 'corporations'. Don't get me wrong - it's good to be critical, and a lot of mess has been and continues to be made by businesses. But many people have a form of innate distrust of everything that's commercially oriented and employs more than 100 people or so. Somehow, in the eyes of these people, as soon as someone becomes part of a larger commercial organization, they become part of some sort of diabolic organism that's out to destroy humanity. I guess.

Well in the case of Walmart, I believe that applies to them. Not joking either. Most greedy corporation I've ever worked for.

 

[Sirius Glass]

What seems to play a role is that many people have an odd bias against 'corporations'. Don't get me wrong - it's good to be critical, and a lot of mess has been and continues to be made by businesses. But many people have a form of innate distrust of everything that's commercially oriented and employs more than 100 people or so. Somehow, in the eyes of these people, as soon as someone becomes part of a larger commercial organization, they become part of some sort of diabolic organism that's out to destroy humanity. I guess.

Yes and they are the Kodak Haters, the Fuji Haters, the Leica Haters, Canon Haters, ...