Thanks Matt for the clarification regarding Sino and Alaris. Do you think that the extra mark-up that Kodak charges Alaris may account for some of the higher costs Alaris gets for the Kodak film?
I think that the costs are most likely lower because of Kodak Alaris.
There were three reasons that Eastman Kodak survived bankruptcy;
1) the bankruptcy trustee got $600,000,000.00 dollars from the Kodak Limited Pension fund;
2) Eastman Kodak was relieved from the super-priority obligation to continue contributing to that fund; and
3) Eastman Kodak was relieved from the massive obligation to continue supporting the world-wide array of infrastructure and employee related costs that supported their still film marketing and distribution, along with the paper and chemical manufacture and marketing and distribution.
Just by "off-loading" almost all of their employees (including their subsidiaries' employees) to Kodak Alaris, they probably were able to get rid of the costs that were a major reason for the bankruptcy.