After years of struggle for Eastman Kodak Company, “What’s Next Starts
Now”
Ex-film giant emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, heads into uncharted
territory
After filing for Chapter 11 protection back in January 2012, Eastman Kodak
has emerged from bankruptcy on September 3rd, 2013.
Under the Chapter 11 provisions, which reorganized the business, there were
four objectives Kodak sought to accomplish. The reorganization was intended to
“bolster liquidity not only in the U.S. but abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual
property, fairly resolve legacy liabilities and enable the Company to focus on its
most valuable business lines,” according to a press release from Kodak.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Kodak’s lead attorneys at Sullivan &
Cromwell LLP spent more than 300 hours in March 2013 working on their
bankruptcy plan. The article adds, “In all, the firm’s attorneys spent more than 6,400
hours working on Kodak’s bankruptcy case that month, for which they charged
$4.44 million in fees and $60,200 in expenses.”
Struggling to keep up with competitors in the digital market, the once
legendary photography and film company has transformed into a smaller, more
specialized business-to-business organization.
Picture takers of all genders, ages and nationalities still using Kodak’s
cameras—traditional or digital—will still be able to develop and print their images
at Kodak’s kiosks and around the world, although these businesses are no longer
owned by Kodak.
The cameras, traditional film, and consumer picture developing that helped
turn Kodak into a legendary company are no more. Selling its patents, consumerprinting products, photograph kiosks, and document scanners to others have all
been a part of shrinking and restructuring the company into a more efficient
business.
“We have emerged as a technology company serving imaging for business
markets—including packaging, functional printing, graphic communications and
professional services,” said Kodak Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Antonio M.
Perez in a press release from Kodak. “We have been revitalized by our
transformation and restructured to become a formidable competitor.”
George Conboy, President of Brighton Securities located in Rochester, NY has
been observing financial markets for over 30 years. In an interview with 1180
WHAM radio, Conboy weighed in on Kodak’s emergence as a new company, stating
that Kodak has a real chance to grow and prosper.
Conboy says that there will be plenty of business for Kodak’s new specialized
printing and imaging services, even though most newspapers, books and magazines
are moving to tablets and people aren’t reading physical papers as much. “Go into a
store, and every package is printed,” Conboy says. “There’s an awful lot of printing
that goes on throughout industry. Kodak has some very good technology and can
make money in that business.”
Kodak projects its sales in the first year to be about $2.5 billion, planning to
continuously grow over the next four to five years. However, Kodak itself admits
that it will be difficult to thrive in this business over a short-term period of time,
stating that the imaging industry is not likely to grow much. According to Conboy,
“They are going to have to be very fierce competitors if they are going to grow and
survive.”
An EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization)
chart released by Kodak on an annual basis shows the path the company looks to
follow after emerging from bankruptcy. After posting negative numbers in 2011 and
2012, of $283 and $158 million respectively, they hope to shape those numbers in
their favor, estimating positive gains of $167 million during 2013 and $494 million
by 2017.
From Kodak’s standpoint, Perez believes that the company is also positioned
to make a name for itself in their new digital imaging company. “We are setting a
projector for profitable growth,” said Perez via news release. “We have the right
technology at the right time as printing markets increasingly transition to digital.
Our broad portfolio of offset, hybrid and digital solutions enables customers to make
the transition at their chosen pace using our breakthrough technology solutions.”
Kodak will not blindly walk into this new market. They are equipped with
new technologies to help them as they transition from a film giant to a smaller,
leaner company. Kodak’s new SQUAREspot™ Imaging Technology, Stream InkJet
Techonlogy,™ and Unified Workflow Solutions are all part of their new mantra to
provide business with “disruptive technologies and breakthrough solutions,”
according to the organization’s official website.
In an interview with Catherine Blackler, the Director of Sustainability
Initiatives for Eastman Kodak Company, these new technologies were described in
detail.
Kodak’s SQUAREspot technology is a laser-based imaging tool used to very
accurately print colors and other images onto packages—especially foil ones—
which will be a huge part of what Kodak does in their new market. “Printing directly
onto these foil pouches requires a special kind of plate imaged with a laser,” says
Blackler, “and SQUAREspot is a type of lasering technology that is very accurate,
very well defined at the pixel level.”
Another tool Kodak plans to use to set itself apart from its competitors is its
Stream InkJet Technology.™ This is a two-part technology that, according to
Blackler, is a commercial inkjet technology for large printing presses and operates at
very high speeds.
The first part, Blackler says, “is the ink, which is made as pigment-based as
opposed to dye-based. This uses less ink, and allows for more uniform coverage. The
second part of the technology is the deposition process, which allows for increased
printing accuracy using very small pixilation with ease.”
Kodak’s Unified Workflow Solutions will allow for easier business-tobusiness, business-to-client communication. This technology allows the business
exchanges and business process to transpire smoothly for both parties involved.
“Unified Workflow Solutions is a process driven by software; clients can email you
what they want you to do,” said Blackler, referring to print jobs and other tasks
clients will be looking to have completed by Eastman Kodak. “Clients can be emailed
back exactly what this print job would look like. Doing this electronically and
virtually saves time, and eliminates a lot of wasted materials, not having to print
samples or do test-runs,” Blackler adds.
These new technologies allow for increased efficiency and more specialized
operations, which is the kind of company that Eastman Kodak has transformed into.
Time will tell if the level of success Kodak once enjoyed will return, or remain a
Kodak moment.
By Mike Lacy