Rochester news about Kodak

[white.elephant]

Time to stock up on T-Max and Tri-X.

I was thinking exactly the same thing, and figuring out how much my freezer can hold . . .

 

[Photo Engineer]

Whatever is affecting Kodak, whether it be economy or silver prices, it will affect Ilford! Think about that for a bit before you go off. The difference is that Ilford does not have to give details!

This is neither bad nor good, and does not change what was posted earlier this week. It is just an update.

PE

 

[michaelbsc]

I would just hope they don't sell the film manufacturing to a Chinese company.

Nah, the government will sell it to the Chinese after they take it over.

 

[alanrockwood]

It will be VERY hard to find an outside buyer for a business with decreasing sales, questionable current profitability, and even more questionable future profitability. That is just finance 101.

If there is to be a sale of the film division it would likely be structured as a management buyout in which certain key people in the film division would "buy" the operation via some kind of creative financing deal. Being free of certain former constraints, the management of the new company will have interesting ideas on how to operate the business profitably. The ideas might work. They might not. In any case, it will be risky.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Best for all concerned if I just watch this thread from the sidelines...

Ken

 

[Neanderman]

Nah, the government will sell it to the Chinese after they take it over.

Not to worry, Kodak is not too big to fail. There will be no bailout and certainly no takeover.

Ed

 

[patrickjames]

Maybe instead of Kodak getting out of the film business Perez should get out of Kodak's business. Didn't he come from HP? Another bastion of poorly run pitifulness.

I am not worried about black and white film which will be around for a long long time to come. Color film, especially large format color film, is a different story. That I fear could be the first casualty of the digital "devolution." I sure love to look at images shot in 8x10 color. If I could afford it, I would do it myself.

 

[Chuck_P]

These threads are so f!~%@#ing depressing. Oh well.

 

[Paul Sorensen]

Whatever is affecting Kodak, whether it be economy or silver prices, it will affect Ilford! Think about that for a bit before you go off. The difference is that Ilford does not have to give details!

This is neither bad nor good, and does not change what was posted earlier this week. It is just an update.

PE

One very big difference is that Ilford is much smaller and has been restructured to work in a world where film is a boutique item. If Kodak was able to spin off the film division, perhaps not all of it but enough to make products for the market that will continue to exist, there would be hope. As it stands, I have no idea if this would be possible. Unfortunately, Kodak seems to be fine with a world in which no film exists, whereas others are less enthused at that prospect. If Kodak really cared about their analog materials they would have figured something out before now, rather than let the film business die while it funds what does not look like a very successful transition into digital. Kinda reeks of what happened to Polaroid, actually. Now if some scammer would buy Kodak as a part of his pyramid scheme, the story would be complete. http://www.startribune.com/business/36404444.html

 

[nickrapak]

But the current Kodak and the current Ilford are not really comparable.

True, but 2004 Ilford and current Kodak are comparable. In 2004, Ilford Ltd, then a subsidiary of Doughty Hanson, experienced a substantial decline in sales in an already small market. This was enough to put them into recievership. Jobs were cut, and the plant was on its way to closure. That was when management bought out the company, forming Harman Ltd. Looking at the way things are going, a PE firm might be the best way for Kodak film to go.

 

[Tim Gray]

Man I hope Kodak or Son of Kodak figures out a way. I love their B&W film, but if I'm really honest with myself, Ilford's offerings are close enough to Plus-X, Tri-X, and probably TMZ to satisfy me. TMY-2 might be a hard one to replace fully - that really is a great film. But Portra - there's no replacement. Every time I scan a good Portra 800 shot, I'm amaze at how good that film is. Same with the 400s.

 

[Perry Way]

Well I am having an epiphany of sorts. I'm imagining right now what it was like for the American Indians to sit back and watch "progress" occur. Y'know, those digital cameras these days, they take perfect photographs. Every one of them is perfect. Nice fake colors that don't exist in nature. Why, they are just spitshine perfect for Stepfordville. Heck, hardly nobody hires a photographer these days for events. Why hire someone when there's a fist full of Nikonophiles and Canonicalphiles in the audience with cameras that take more photographs than you can imagine possible by a mere human being. Somewhere in the 1000's of digital files, there's gotta be that one photo that's a keeper so who needs a photographer for the wedding? Death of a thousand paper cuts. After they raise the price to cover the new higher costs, it might harm film sales and create a cancer that eats the host alive.

 

[Q.G.]

What we have today is the \"Son of Ilford\" rather than the contemporary of Eastman Kodak.

You are saying that in contrast Kodak still is the same company it was when George Eastman ruled the roost?

 

[hpulley]

Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!

 

[Steve Smith]

Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!

Ou est le Roi nouveau?


Steve.

 

[hpulley]

Tout le monde!

 

[hpulley]

On a more serious note, lots of good quotes in this old ditty...

"Consumer Film is Dead. But Kodak is Alive. Jeffrey Hayzlett Explains"

"What’s the B2B B2C difference, how does an industrial giant like Kodak switch from consumer to business marketing and use tension to motivate net marketing strategies? What type of business to business research is required and what is the future of marketing to business customers? These are just some the questions we address in this episode.

Kodak, once a huge consumer brand, has transformed itself from a business-to-consumer to a business-to-business focused company. Over the last five years, Kodak’s revenue from consumer film has dropped from $15 billion to $200 million, but the company still has sales of $8 billion annually through a portfolio of new products, most of which are less than two years old and 80 percent of that revenue comes from business customers.

This is the story of reinvention. It’s about how an old guard stalwart picked itself up after the demise of Kodachrome, one of the world’s most iconic brands, and emerged from the rubble, staring obsolescence in the face. Rather than go the way of the buggy whip, Kodak shifted its focus and beat the odds. Learn how former Kodak CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett helped an analog titan become a digital powerhouse in this exclusive one-on-one audio interview."

"04:09 -- The death of the consumer film business and Kodak’s efforts to reinvent its brand through new business-to-business products and services."

http://ontherecordpodcast.com/pr/otro/death-of-film-kodak-jeffrey-hayzlett.aspx

I can still buy new buggy whips in Conestoga but I can't buy new Kodachrome

 

[Diapositivo]

If any firm in this world had to close an operation at the first quarter of operating loss, the world GNP would have fallen by more than 50% by now since the beginning of the crisis.

Kodak can wait for the recovery of the economics, as they are doing. They have secured new long-term financing recently. They are not going to rush for the fire exit. In 2012 or so, some other divisions of the firm will possibly be in profit, and Kodak as an entity can hopefully survive.

Regarding film, Kodak can sell the business now, but in dire times will not get the price it would get in better economic times. Unless forced by financial constraints (which Kodak does not seem to suffer at the moment) it is in the interest of Kodak to keep the film business alive and sell it a couple of years down the road, if they even want to get out of film business.

In any case, a quarter of operating loss, in these harsh economic times, it's not something that can take anybody by surprise. And Kodak may sell its film business in any case, and will maybe do it in any case in a few years.

I don't see any catastrophic news in this news, although I would have preferred the film business to be continuously profitable for Kodak.

Fabrizio

 

[marylandphoto]

Kodak’s revenue from consumer film has dropped from $15 billion to $200 million, but the company still has sales of $8 billion annually through a portfolio of new products, most of which are less than two years old and 80 percent of that revenue comes from business customers.

That's a 98.67% drop in revenue!

 

[CGW]

These threads are so f!~%@#ing depressing. Oh well.

Amen. I'd also add "pointless."

 

[holmburgers]

You know... in the year 2000, all the computers will go haywire and destroy our technology infrastructure.

 

[perkeleellinen]

You know... in the year 2000, all the computers will go haywire and destroy our technology infrastructure.

Our machines reverted to year '00' which was interpreted as 1970. No problems at all on January 1st, but on 29 February things went weird. This was because 2000 was a leap year but 1970 wasn't.

 

[holmburgers]

Haha, now that I did not know!

Oh and also I should add that of course Kodak will cease film in 2012, you would too if the world was gonna end, wouldn't you?! I mean, the Mayan calendar and all...

 

[Black Dog]

Don't worry, Bruce Willis and a motley crew of APUGGers will save us all [and do lots of walking in slo mo while we're at it]!

 

[Grainy]

Not a big loss, but I didn't think Kodak (and Fuji) would kill the APS film production so soon when there is many people still using it. I doubt that the people using APS will switch to 35mm cameras.