Kodak Price Rises?

[Michael W]

Story at this link
Surprised I haven't seen this posted here yet. It's from approx one week back & says that some Kodak film & paper prices will be increased by up to 20% due to rising costs of raw materials. Can't blame them for that one I suppose.

 

[Mike Wilde]

like everything else in life...

20% seems pretty tame, compared to other recent cost escalations.

I buy flour to make our own bread in a bread machine. Usualy I buy a 10kg bag of all purpose and a 10kg of whole wheat; that keeps us in bread for quite a few months.

I can remember buying the whole wheat for $8 last time around thanksgiving, but I don't recall if that was when it was on sale. Last week, no sale in sight like at christmas or thanksgiving, but I was out, so bought a bag of whole wheat - at $13.95. Ouch.

 

[wildbill]

The last time i bought a bunch of 120 tri-x it was $2.95, recently it's gone up to about $3.95 along with their other stocks and ilford too. Ouch. Time to sell some prints!

 

[mark]

Anyone else see a problem with this last sentence?
"Kodak has spent $3.4 billion to cut 28,000 jobs as demand for its film products continues to drop."

I must be really dense. I don't get it.

 

[Silverhead]

"May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Eastman Kodak Co., the photography company remaking itself in the digital age, is raising prices on film and paper"

One problem with this sentence: Kodak hasn't made paper for a few years now. Lazy people at Bloomberg!

Unless of course, they're talking about inkjet paper...which isn't the thrust of the article anyway.

And this is the kind of information that people in the business world rely on...no wonder the economy's in the tank.

However, the Bloomberg website helpfully posts this: To contact the reporter on this story: Courtney Dentch in New York at cdentch1@bloomberg.net. Perhaps some of us should take advantage of their generosity.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

...Kodak hasn't made paper for a few years now...contact the reporter on this story...

Although Kodak discontinued black and white paper, it continues to manufacture color paper. I wouldn't contact that reporter to point out an error...

 

[Silverhead]

Point well taken...of course, since I haven't bought Kodak color paper in many, many years now, I haven't had much cause to remember whether they still make it or not.

 

[Lopaka]

Anyone else see a problem with this last sentence?
"Kodak has spent $3.4 billion to cut 28,000 jobs as demand for its film products continues to drop."

I must be really dense. I don't get it.

It's called "buy-outs" and other costs associated with cutting work force. Averages about $121,000 and change per person according to that quote.

Bob

 

[Goldfellow]

Bloomberg was incorrect

Last Friday, Kodak issued a release on potential upcoming price increases on a select range of many consumable products it sells. The Bloomberg interpretation of the release was not exactly correct. Specifically, for professional and consumer films, and one time use cameras in the US, that increase was already taken earlier this year. The release Kodak issued last Friday refers to other products. Here is the exact release from Kodak ....

"ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 30 – Eastman Kodak Company today announced that it will increase prices on a select range of consumable products across its businesses on a worldwide basis.
Prices will increase as much as 20%, depending on product line and geography. The increases are a result of the soaring prices of key raw materials, especially silver and aluminum.
Kodak previously noted the impact of these raw material costs during a conference call with investors following the announcement of its first-quarter results on May 1. The price increases will help alleviate some of the impact of rising raw materials costs.
The increases will be rolled out by product group and geography in the coming weeks, and the company expects them to be implemented by July 1."


Hope this helps.
Goldfellow

 

[Michael W]

Thanks for the clarification. It's nice to have someone from Kodak around to clear up questions such as this.

 

[Goldfellow]

Glad to do it, Goldie. I just recently joined the group to learn as well as help where I can. It's great to see the people out there who are passionate about film.

 

[lonelyboy]

This time Kodak just followed what Fuji did earlier......

http://www.fujifilm.com/news/n080520.html

Fuji announced earlier than Kodak.

 

[Michael Kadillak]

Story at this link
Surprised I haven't seen this posted here yet. It's from approx one week back & says that some Kodak film & paper prices will be increased by up to 20% due to rising costs of raw materials. Can't blame them for that one I suppose.

Conversation with Kodak yesterday - The price increase was already implemented earler this year on B&W film. Relax.

 

[Colin Graham]

Point well taken...of course, since I haven't bought Kodak color paper in many, many years now, I haven't had much cause to remember whether they still make it or not.

Unbelievable.

 

[SuzanneR]

Glad to do it, Goldie. I just recently joined the group to learn as well as help where I can. It's great to see the people out there who are passionate about film.

Welcome to the forum, Goldfellow... I'm pleased to see someone from Kodak stopping by, and thanks for the clarification.

 

[Don12x20]

"ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 30 – Eastman Kodak Company today announced that it will increase prices ....
Prices will increase as much as 20%, .....a result of the soaring prices of key raw materials, especially silver and ..... ."
Goldfellow

Kodak has one of the largest stockpiles of industrial silver which is stored in the salt mines under Rochester region. I doubt that they are buying silver today at the spot or contract prices that have risen so high this year....but it sure makes a great reason to raise prices. They're in a death spiral -- raise prices, see the market shrink, with product volumes decreasing which means raising prices ...ad infinitum.

During the Hunt Brother's attempt to corner the silver market back in the late 1970's, the price on Kodak's film products rose substantially as silver crested at $53.00 up from $3.50. As silver returned to its pre-Hunt range, the products, of course, nver returned to previous pricing.

 

[Uncle Bill]

Glad to do it, Goldie. I just recently joined the group to learn as well as help where I can. It's great to see the people out there who are passionate about film.

Welcome aboard Goldfellow, I have become a big fan of Tri-x, Plus-X, D-76 and Dektol over the past year and I have tried out my share of film/developer combos. Thank you for the prompt clarification.

 

[MattKing]

Glad to do it, Goldie. I just recently joined the group to learn as well as help where I can. It's great to see the people out there who are passionate about film.

Welcome to APUG Goldfellow. The presence of someone who speaks from Kodak's perspective is greatly appreciated.

Can I humbly suggest you post in the "Introduce Yourself to the APUG Community" forum.

Matt (a Kodak supporter for 40+ years)

 

[dxphoto]

Kokokokodak

what the hell!!
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/30/technology/kodak.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008053018

Just bought some more tri-x....

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Threads merged.

 

[PhotoJim]

Kodak has one of the largest stockpiles of industrial silver which is stored in the salt mines under Rochester region. I doubt that they are buying silver today at the spot or contract prices that have risen so high this year....but it sure makes a great reason to raise prices. They're in a death spiral -- raise prices, see the market shrink, with product volumes decreasing which means raising prices ...ad infinitum.

Kodak isn't exactly making massive profits at the moment.

Kodak (and all companies) have a right to make a fair profit off of their products. If the market will not bear the price they choose to charge, the price will drop or the product will be discontinued, depending on whether the product is profitable at the lower market price or not.

We don't have to like it. We just have to decide if we want to take photographs on silver or not.

The benefits of silver photography still outweigh the costs for me.

 

[Tim Gray]

Conversation with Kodak yesterday - The price increase was already implemented earler this year on B&W film. Relax.

Whoops! I just bought 30 more rolls of film that I didn't *really* need. Oh well

 

[Columbia_G]

Kodak has one of the largest stockpiles of industrial silver which is stored in the salt mines under Rochester region. I doubt that they are buying silver today at the spot or contract prices that have risen so high this year....but it sure makes a great reason to raise prices. They're in a death spiral -- raise prices, see the market shrink, with product volumes decreasing which means raising prices ...ad infinitum.

During the Hunt Brother's attempt to corner the silver market back in the late 1970's, the price on Kodak's film products rose substantially as silver crested at $53.00 up from $3.50. As silver returned to its pre-Hunt range, the products, of course, nver returned to previous pricing.

I don't understand this post.

Yes, K would naturally stockpile silver (more in the past than it does now with the reduced demand) in order to mitigate and "smooth" the impact of market price fluctuations on its end products. That's understandable and simply sound business management.

And, it has to maintain a certain level of total reserves - not just run them down during rising price eras. The purpose of the reserves is that they "smooth" the impact of spiking spot prices - but they do not eliminate it.

Oh, and they are expected to make profits for their shareholders too. Isn't that how they stay in business?

BTW: what do you think $138/bbl for oil is doing to film stock prices?

 

[lonelyboy]

I don't understand this post.

Yes, K would naturally stockpile silver (more in the past than it does now with the reduced demand) in order to mitigate and "smooth" the impact of market price fluctuations on its end products. That's understandable and simply sound business management.

And, it has to maintain a certain level of total reserves - not just run them down during rising price eras. The purpose of the reserves is that they "smooth" the impact of spiking spot prices - but they do not eliminate it.

Oh, and they are expected to make profits for their shareholders too. Isn't that how they stay in business?

BTW: what do you think $138/bbl for oil is doing to film stock prices?

This kind of buffering the cost (stock piling raw materials) is entirely depending on the industrial practice. Since Fuji is not doing this, Kodak is not doing this also. Both companies have been transferring the cost of raw materials to consumers in the past. When the raw materials price rise, they increase the price and when the raw materials price lower, they lower the price.

 

[dynachrome]

I agree with everything except the idea that film prices went down when the cost of the raw materials went down. Over time prices fluctuated for other reasons. In the 1970s Kodachrome with pre-paid Kodak processing was imported from England and France. Later, film was "re-imported" from other markets. In both cases currency fluctuations had a lot to do with the difference in price between "U.S." film and imported film. At some point Kodak started importing Kodacolor films from China. Eventually this arrangement ended and Kodacolor is coated in the U.S. again. I have read different explanations for this. There is plenty of non-pro color print film floating around at good prices in the 35mm format. You can get black & white 35mm film for $0.18 a foot from The Film Emporium and bulk load it yourself. There are probably fewer bargains in color slide film because there are only two manufacturers left and only a limited amount is still used. Still there are good prices on 35mm slide film from Unique Photo.