Do you really think that chain stores like drug store chains buy Fuji or Ilford film from distributors that specialize in photographic products? They buy it from the same distributors that they buy Kodak film from - distributors that service the retail markets they operate in.
Harman's distribution network is small and highly specialized. Kodak's is large and international and comprehensive in its presence.
To the most part they service very different customers with very different needs. It's just that mostly the people who frequent Photrio happen to inhabit the spot where those markets overlap - the photographic specialty market.
distributors for non-Kodak film don't have retired pensioners depending on Alaris markups to support their pension payments.
But there are apparently two levels of distribution for Kodak film. Alaris and the other distributors. So, Alaris adds one more level of markup that other film manufacturers don't do raising the price of Kodak film higher at the retail level. Plus, distributors for non-Kodak film don't have retired pensioners depending on Alaris markups to support their pension payments.
I recall hearing that the Pension plan applied to be bailed out a while ago. so the Pension Board may be the ones in Control of Alaris these days. One might suspect that is why the chemical business was sold off.
Updated: Kodak Pension Plan 2 officially enters PPF assessment in largest claim on lifeboat to date
Roughly 11,000 members of Kodak Pension Plan (No.2) (KPP2) have officially entered the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) assessment period, the largest claim on the lifeboat to date, it has revealedwww.pensionsage.com
And who would be likely to mark up the substantial costs related to distribution more?
Eastman Kodak, who have institutional investors demanding return on investment, or Kodak Alaris, who has a quasi-government owner demanding return on investment.
Someone is going to have to spend that money, and they are going to demand that they make more money than they put out.
So, you have Eastman maximizing their profits for stockholders and Alaris maximizing markups to pay their pensioners. Hence, higher prices for Kodak film than their competition.
hopefully ALL film manufacturers have been paying the full load to their pension plans. SO they all SHOULD be spending on pensions. The Kodak bankrupcy in the US allowed it to cut some of the the pension obligations it owed to the US workers, BUT the laws were More Worker friendly in the UK, and so the Kodak Limited pension plan was provided with the Asset of Alaris to meet that obligation.I don't understand all the details of the article. But it seems clear that the pensioners will be getting less than they use too. The fund is £1.5bn short. I assume markup and profits of Kodak Alaris effect what they get so they're an incentive to raise film prices. Other film manufacturers don't have this pension issue to contend with.
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