Kodak Financial Woes Deepen: Film Future?

[IanG]

In spite of all your bitching and moaning EKCo still makes the widest variety and the highest quality films, it's hard to compare pock-marked crap from England and the rest of the Third World to our stuff.

If you want Kodak to disappear, then keep on doing what you you're doing... dissing the company that pioneered and helped make photography what it is today. Go ahead and use the cheap stuff, or cling to your freezers of ten-year old stock, so the don't sell as much. Kill it faster and say goodbye to decent large format color....

The Coating division is a small part of Kodak, it's paid Perez etc their Bonuses because until very recently it's been extremely profitable.

It's the other parts of the company and the corporate directors that have been the downfall.

The problem is we all think of Kodak as a film and paper manufacturer, except they ditched B&W

The biggest Joke is Kodak (wholesale) are still trying to sell Kodachrome films (in the UK) some staff have no idea what it is and that processing been withdrawn, but they still have stock (in date) on the shelf

Parts of Kodak's website still recommend using their B&W papers, that's a company that's lost focus.


I'd add another problem, Kodak materials other than consumer C41 have almost totally disappeared from many markets/countries. If you'd seen how much time (days) I spent trying to get Kodak 120 Tmax films in South America 3 years ago you'd begin to understand. All I could get was Ilford and surprisingly Foma, and odd rolls of Fuji. it's the same here in Turkey, so I've switched back to Ilford after 20+ years of using Tmax, in all formats.

That's not the film division at fault, that's Perez and his distribution model.

Ian

[Roger Cole]

In spite of all your bitching and moaning EKCo still makes the widest variety and the highest quality films, it's hard to compare pock-marked crap from England and the rest of the Third World to our stuff.

If you want Kodak to disappear, then keep on doing what you you're doing... dissing the company that pioneered and helped make photography what it is today. Go ahead and use the cheap stuff, or cling to your freezers of ten-year old stock, so the don't sell as much. Kill it faster and say goodbye to decent large format color....

Yes, yes, yes! I agree, Howard Tanger

It's hard to imagine how you can describe Ilford as "pock marked" though some Foma film has been reported with coating defects.

I've always found Ilford the QC equal of Kodak, and it's certainly not crap.

I don't want Kodak film to go away, and I'll continue using it while I can, but I could, if I had to, get by in B&W very well without any Kodak products assuming everything else on the current market remained.

[Sal Santamaura]

...it's hard to compare pock-marked crap from England and the rest of the Third World...

At it again Frank? It's obnoxious every time you unjustifiably denigrate Ilford. This time you've also described England as a third world country. Your reputation as a hurler of nonsense increases with every such post.

...EKCo still makes the widest variety and the highest quality films, it's hard to compare...to our stuff...

So, are you a major Kodak stockholder Frank? "Our stuff?" Is your ownership of Kodak why you flame Ilford?

[Armin Seeholzer]

Frank is just joking or is he sick;--)))

I use Kodak Films still in 4x5 and smaller on 8x10 I switched to Ilford and I alway's buy what I get fast!
So you also use Ilford and Fuji's on smaller then 4x5 but Fuji gets very hard to get here in Switzerland!

Cheers Armin

[BobCrowley]

That WSJ article is written by shorties. If you listened to the most recent EK concall, you would know the paper and printing business is still being right sized and stabilized, pretty much on time, and although not mentioned in the concall, traditional film has leveled and even gained a bit. Film is still a high margin and cash cow for EK and anyone else who might acquire it.

One of the hardest thing to do is scale down a large company. Polaroid, even under wise management, would have had trouble doing it, but couldn't.

WSJ articles are suspect in my book. I've watched many DJ publications that predict wishes especially on the short side.

[Frank Petronio]

Well... I do love to get Sal's blood pressure up.

But I think it's asinine to claim Kodak is giving up on film at this point, and that the solution is to switch to a lessor brand, especially if you live in the USA. I live in Rochester, I see what happens when you buy off-shore junk and our local factories close. Americans have done it to themselves and we're stupid to have done it. But at the very least, we could at least buy some products made in our own country.

Granted, Fuji has equal-to-Kodak quality control but, having been burnt by Ilford mis-packaging and also mis-cutting several boxes of their B&W sheet film, I know that Ilford's quality and Kodak's quality are not equivalent. It's not bad film, you just get what you pay for.

[Brian C. Miller]

I have always been puzzled about advertising. Why isn't there any advertising done to extol the virtues of using film?? If you want to move a product, it has to be advertised. However, film companies have been letting this concept sit on the floor. How can you have a Kodak moment without Kodak film? Why doesn't Ilford play up its history starting with the Autochrome? What would our history have been like without film? Sure, a painting of the Hindenburg crashing would be dramatic, but would it be as dramatic as the actual photographs?

The "but they don't care" argument doesn't work with me. We use information to prick someone's conscience. Milton Rogovin used portraits to provoke social change. W. Eugene Smith took a physical beating for photographing industrial waste in Japan. So why don't the film companies go and prick the consumer's conscience? It's like they've lain down and died.

[bobwysiwyg]

I'm guessing they have done the math on advertising costs as well. Their limited advertising $$ are probably better spent on more profitable aspects of their business.. or at least that's what they are thinking.

[BobCrowley]

Advertising is often directed more to new and growth markets. Film is thought of as a maintenance market. EK does advertise its film here and there, but in the absence of a clear or younger market for film, there isn't much point. Also many miles of motion picture film are no longer needed, now that American company Panavision has succeeded in exceeding film for movie making.

All of "the film companies" are small. The large companies such as Kodak, Fujifilm and maybe Ilford, make some film, by the way, but it is now a small part of their overall business. For EK, it shrank frighteningly, resulting in a lot of empty real estate. Polaroid was out of control before digital hit. Fujifilm was much quicker to react to changes in consumer imaging with their very successful Finepix line. Harman Technology continues to serve the smaller market well with their Ilford brand, and there are other niche players who are looking at possible growth as the giants move out of the field.

Consumer imaging is not focused in consumables, such as film and paper anymore, but on image acquisition, processing and electronic transmission - new virtues to extol, by the dozens.

Anyway, when investor groups start ganging up on a shrinking company, it hastens its demise, putting pressure on its market price, and discouraging believers. The goal is to get the price down even more, force divestment at a low price, while making money on short positions. It happens all the time.

http://new55project.blogspot.com

[Michael Kadillak]

I'm guessing they have done the math on advertising costs as well. Their limited advertising $$ are probably better spent on more profitable aspects of their business.. or at least that's what they are thinking.

Seems to me that they are using their financial resources to purchase their competition so they can shut down these operations some of which is newer than what they have in England. Some call it a predatory business practice. Others call it being shrewd but every time such a deal gets transacted one more option is wiped off of the table. Remember Kentmere and Bergger?

Nobody in this game is ready to be nominated for sainthood. But I still need sheet film in my holders so I am going to make like Switzerland so I do not have to declare my alliance with anyone. Whoever is still making and cutting emulsion is my close personal friend. Long live analog!