Short/past date Kodak film stock in Australia

[Stephen Frizza]

This month something interesting has been happening in Australia with certain Kodak Products....Kodak has been supplying local businesses with out of date stock.
It's literally expired before we received it. To be fair upon calling Kodak they realizes this and are willing to exchanging the stock, but it does make me wonder whats going on.

Did they know they were going to do this and hope their buyers wouldn't notice or care? was is a simple accident? I am surprised kodak
would allow this to occur or even that kodak is sitting on film stock long enough now for it to expire before being sold.

 

[AgX]

This is "new Kodak" now selling film I guess.

 

[hoffy]

My initial thoughts as a greedy little bugga:

"Cool - should be able to get some cheap film"

But, from a stock point of view, that is pretty poor form. I couldn't imagine that this would have been done intentionally.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

my main thought is.....what does this say about kodaks turn over of stock?

also it reminds me of an even in 2002 - 2003 with Kodak 20x24" cut sheet of supra endura. The stock was damaged on its was to Australia and the emulsion had an unusual colour shift as a result....Kodak knew about it but said nothing hoping labs here wouldn't notice. It took a few labs to band together to finally get Kodak to exchange the stocks. it later came out that the paper was damaged, they knew about it and hoped for the best.

 

[lxdude]

That's some bad management. Lose people's trust just to save some bucks and you've lost everything.

 

[Ian Grant]

Kodak were still trying to sell Kodachrome to dealers in the UK after Dwaynes had stopped processing it. Some in their sales departments don't understand film.

Ian

 

[AgX]

Kodak were still trying to sell Kodachrome to dealers in the UK after Dwaynes had stopped processing it. Some in their sales departments don't understand film.

There must something be quite wrong in the industry for this to happen.

 

[ozphoto]

Stock rotation blunder perhaps? New stock arrives, gets warehoused with the older stock (lets say cartons on top or in front) and it gets sent out first, leaving the old stuff to continue to date.

In *any* case - poor stocktaking & sales skills are obvious, and seems they need it brought to their attention, so they get their act together pronto! (Do they still have reps calling in, or has that also gone by the wayside?)

 

[Stephen Frizza]

I have vivid memories talking to the national salesman of Kodak here in Australia about Kodak Portra NC160 in 120 format and having him ask me "Is that product film or paper?".

 

[MartinP]

Someone mentioned the 'new' Kodak, where the marketing and sales of film was bought up by the Kodak UK pension-plan. They will be selling to wholesalers and national distribution chains, not delivering stock to customers. This is a foolish and/or incompetent distributors error.

At least Mr.Frizza, above, didn't have the Kodak sales-rep asking which printer the Portra fitted in to ?!

 

[ozphoto]

I have vivid memories talking to the national salesman of Kodak here in Australia about Kodak Portra NC160 in 120 format and having him ask me "Is that product film or paper?".

Good grief! No wonder they ended up filing a Chapter 11; that is totally unacceptable - the rep is their 1st line of communication, and if they have no idea about what they're selling, what hope do Kodak really think they have????

 

[AgX]

Someone mentioned the 'new' Kodak, where the marketing and sales of film was bought up by the Kodak UK pension-plan. They will be selling to wholesalers and national distribution chains, not delivering stock to customers. This is a foolish and/or incompetent distributors error.

Steve had it about Kodak delivering old stock, not a wholesaler.

 

[MartinP]

AgX, that would be Kodak Australia - the pension-plan didn't buy national distributors, did it?

Thinking back to when I used to work in the industry (in UK), we were a Kodak based lab and it was supplied only through Kodak. We were not allowed to buy Kodak material from other sources, and in return we got a beneficial adjustment in the volume based discount. Did Kodak (old version) ever go to a distribution model involving non-Kodak wholesalers, or did they stay using the national Kodak distribution chains, keeping customers locked-in and controlled?

One of the benefits and economies sought by the pension-plan is the freeing up of the distribution chains for the film and paper products. That will take some time to organise and any material available now will be from the 'old' distribution networks, especially considering that the Chapter-11 deal has only been implemented in the last few weeks even though we have been reading about it for months. It may well be that an 'old' chain distributor has been attempting to reduce old stock before being dumped by the new system . . .

 

[removed account4]

ssdd

 

[clayne]

C'mon guys, Kodak is better than this - and we all know it. Can we get a more appropriate thread title?

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Last week , I found a kodak express lab from kodak com and I visited the lab , guys one eye blind and other eye crossed and said to me kodak stopped production !

 

[Stephen Frizza]

C'mon guys, Kodak is better than this - and we all know it. Can we get a more appropriate thread title?

I Love kodak products. I find when I order things from Kodak USA and ship down here its always a great experience, I cant say the same for kodak Australia.
For example I was able to set up a Kodak USA account easier than I could set up one with Kodak Australia. Kodak in the early days of my business were extremely non supportive. They wanted to know exactly how much money I was worth (none of their business) and only wanted to give me a cash account at list price.

Fuji on the other hand was totally different. They gave me every chemical I needed to tank up each one of my film and paper processors so i could get my equipment up and running free of charge and gave me a 30 day account. It was very supportive to my needs in getting up and running, Ive never had problems and I'm still very loyal to them.

On the other hand I still wanted to use Kodak products and my first order of Kodak when running my own business they send me stale paper where the paper base was not white but cream / yellow. upon telling the sales rep at Kodak this and showing him the problem he asked me..."Will your clients notice if you don't print with borders?" Another thing that has annoyed me with Kodak Australia is times when i have asked for materials for jobs and they have told me they don't have it in stock and while have to wait 6 weeks to arrive, but when i get another individual to order the same thing on another company account (which does spend more) they have it in 3 days. All clients should be treated equal in my opinion.

Im probably not doing myself or my business any favors by sharing this but Kodak in Australia has never impressed me. I love Kodak products but where ever possible I buy from the USA.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Oh another product whinge about kodak is their rolls of paper the 50" rolls which are cut and packed in china the last 5 meters of the roll get indents in the surface of the material from the texture of the cardboard core that supports the roll while the American cut and packaged product does not have this issue. I wasted many many meters of paper from Kodak Australia because they denied there was an issue and it cost my business a loss in profits. It was only by talking to other pro lab owners about this issue did i discover from a far larger lab that kodak Australia opened up to them and let them know that it was dependent on where the paper was from and the pro lab owner told me next time I order to insist I get sent paper packaged in usa and not china. Since then I have not had the core indent on paper surface issue.

 

[zsas]

Let's be clear folks, this is the AU Kodak subsidiary who've done this. Let's make sure to not turn one incident (that is indeed unfortunate) into some massive reflection upon the whole. What value is there in dredging up old-stories-of-poor-service/quality/distribution/etc?

I sure hope that the OP contacted Kodak Global to ensure that this local subsidiary adheres with the QC standards that we all know are upheld elsewhere.....I mean Tri-X isn't the worlds best-selling-film-for-nothin?

Threads like this serve no value unless action is taken to ensure this issue is dealt with appropriately...


Proof AU is a subsidiary
http://print21.com.au/kodak-australia-dodges-bankruptcy-bullet/34589

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Stephen,

This is curiosity , how many film labs remained in Australia , how many rolls of film being sold this year , is there a statistics for that ?
In Turkey , I have no idea.

Umut

 

[AgX]

AgX, that would be Kodak Australia - the pension-plan didn't buy national distributors, did it?

You are right in that "only" Eastman Kodak USA was in that insolvency. But I assumed KPP would have taken over all still film business world wide. Kodak Australia would be left with rest of US Kodak's Business.
But who knows...

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

I have vivid memories talking to the national salesman of Kodak here in Australia about Kodak Portra NC160 in 120 format and having him ask me "Is that product film or paper?".

Decades ago I spent a few years working in a small commercial darkroom. When the local Kodak sales rep would stop by he'd sometimes wander in to talk shop for a bit while I was working. As I recall, I could ask him just about any technical question regarding Kodak's products and he invariably knew the answer. Never had to "get back to me." And his answers were always correct.

Heck, he could even talk generic shooting and printing techniques without missing a beat. Always enjoyed his visits. He had a deep reservoir of photographic knowledge. For obvious reasons he sold lots of product too.

Boy have times changed...



Ken

 

[Prof_Pixel]

Decades ago I spent a few years working in a small commercial darkroom. When the local Kodak sales rep would stop by he'd sometimes wander in to talk shop for a bit while I was working. As I recall, I could ask him just about any technical question regarding Kodak's products and he invariably knew the answer. Never had to "get back to me." And his answers were always correct.

Those were the days Kodak's sales reps were know as TSRs - technical sales representatives - and really WERE technical. I think that changed in the 1990s IIRC. They became simply 'order takers'.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Yep. That explains it then. My timeframe would have been in the early to mid 1980s. That guy really knew his stuff.

Ken

 

[clayne]

Stephen I guess my point is that, as zsas said, this is obviously a Kodak Australia issue specifically. You need to consider how much a threat title and some non reading nobody can result in sensationalist news due to rumors.