I have read the articles about Kodak's B&W film growth. the questions are, how much is B&W a total % of film sales? How much is the cost of producing B&W products in relation to other film products? Sales and costs can be vastly different accross product lines. And if you think because they invested money in a new processing plant they will keep producing film you are kidding yourself.
My wife works for a major airline. This airline spent 100s of millions building hub facilities in cities in the US in the late 80s. The sky was the limit for growth and profit. But economics, low fare carriers, fuel costs etc cuaght them by surprise. One of these hubs in Nashville, TN cost something like $60million to build. It had 20+ gates and set up to service overseas as well as domestic travel. Make a long story short, the passenger vloume never developed and they used a bout a dozen of the gates for a few years. Last time I was throught that airport, (1998) that wing of the airport was empty, the airline pulled out. They just walked away from the investment and took a write down against profits for several years.
It would be better for Kodak to sell the rights to the products and get a small percentage of sales. I don't think they are going to compete with Eastern European and Asian products on cost with materials repackaged and produced in a US factory.
I hope for those who like Kodak products they are continued in some form, but don't be deceived by what spokespeople or CEO's say. Statements are made to prop up stocks and pacify leary investors. Closing facilities no matter how new or how costly can be a strategy to show investors that you are serious about improving profits. And a change in CEOs or CFO's can change things around in a matter of days.
Kodak has been plagued by extremely poor management and decsion making. It has been shown time after time that once bad decisons are made they usually lead to even worse decsions and consequences down the road. Time will tell who is the biggest loosers in all this.