Norman Childs wrote:
> What is required is a radical > new business plan that changes forever the Kodak that we know at present. > That would probably mean downsizing again, Absolutely - if you really want to see the problem which confronts Kodak one merely has to go and look at their plant at Harrow - I think it is either 1st or 2nd in terms of size of any such plant in the world and it is vast and rather dated. And all dedicated to a declining product. Scary. Fuji may be touted as a possible buyer for its film division but Fuji, being a sassy Japanese company only developed profitable lines and big commercial markets. Kodak's decline will affect far more than photographers - one just has to look at all the specialist scientific and medical films in their catalogue to appreciate what a total market leader they have been. To take Norman's airlines analogy further - flying with Ryanair is just fine until they lose your bags and you discover they only have three staff and one phone number to deal with all their lost baggage. Kodak may have lost market share to their leaner and seemingly more efficient competitors in reent years but the fact is they support a far greater product range in virtually every country in the world than Fuji and for Kodak to sustain this extensive product list, they need bulk film sales. Andre wrote >2002, the Company believes digital substitution reduced consumer film sales growth by approximately 3% in the U.S. For 2003, the Company estimates that digital substitution will reduce consumer film sales growth by 4% to 5% in the U.S." Which just goes to prove how totally confused they are as it is their own latest figures which reveal a $1.8,000,000,000 loss on film sales and the admission that they are declining at twice their expected rate. This is the kind of decline in one's base product which is dangerously near free-fall. And in the modern world investors do not like companies, however sacred, who do not have a vibrant and growing market. They made indeed have all sorts of patents but technology moves so fast that they are probably out of date already. Even down-sizing will have its problems as the cost of the kind of redundancy numbers implied by pulling out of the film market will be crippling. Long term implications for film are interesting: no doubt Kodak and Fuji will continue to produce some especial professional lines but one has to wonder whether they will continue to research and develop these products. The 14n has been a costly lesson to them although half the work had already been done by Nikon in the form of the actual body. One wonders how long Nikon will accept a competitor using the same bady - Kodak are have dabbled in the past with cameras and other bits of kit but they have always tended to be expensive and not quite as cutting edge as their competitors. Holding the patent to a system is all very well but it is the name on the actuial kit which impresses the punters and right now when ones thinks "printer". one think Epson, Canon etc not Kodak. Kodak have lost their enormous hold on the way in which we capture and re-produce our images. The age of film, chemicals and silver based paper has gone really leaving just hardware and ink-jet media and currently Kodak do not really feature in either. Kodak have a proven history of making great products and then refusing to support them - remember Kodachrome - and whiulst it is really sad to think of such a great name going one only has to look and see how easily Polaroid slipped from the game - Kodak may be bigger but right now their product base is looking increasingly irrelevant. >From a purely selfish point of view we will suffer from the loss of their patronage. Kodak have for many years been great supporters of photographers both in terms of technical support but also in simple financial support for exhibitions, projects and the like. I've never heard of Apple doing a similiar job and whilst I know that Epson have done some deals I do not think we will ever see the kind of global support for photographers and the work we create coming from the likes of Sony / Epson / Apple / Microsoft etc. I may have cursed Kodak many times in my career but I also know that without them and their products I would not have had the fantastic experiences which photography has given me over the years. Enjoy the [yellow] light whilst it lasts! Mike St Maur Sheil T> + 44 (0) 1367 870 276 F> + 44 (0) 1367 870 641 M> + 44 (0) 7860 508 679 W> www.sheilphoto.co.uk ---------------------------- =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
