Kodak’s Chapter 11 Status—Business As Usual
By Lisa Reider, Senior Product Editor, Scanners and
Environmental
As financial pundits and industry analysts wave their
fingers, shouting “I told you so!” at the news of Kodak filing for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection, a conversation with the people this announcement affects
the most reveals that it is not all doom and gloom. In a recent conversation
with Sue Cardot, Kodak’s worldwide director for BSSG Outbound Marketing and
Communications, and Jackie Horn, Kodak’s worldwide marketing manager for
Document Imaging, they seemed confident that their day-to-day operations
wouldn’t be significantly impacted, and that the BLI award-winning
Kodak-branded line of scanners, software and services would live on and
continue to expand.
According to Kodak, its Document Imaging business, now
part of the “Enterprise Services and Solutions” portion of the company’s newly
formed commercial division, is one of the strongest areas for the company in
terms of continued product growth, with a 15- to 20% increase in 2011 (compared
to 2010). “Digital and Functional Printing” (its commercial printing
operations) and “Graphics and Entertainment and Commercial Film” (commercial
consumables), which also fall under the commercial division, remain a
significant part of Kodak’s strategy.
Cardot also stated that Kodak’s partner and customer
relationships are still quite strong, albeit after some “turbulent”
conversations. In fact, when browsing Web sites of various Kodak resellers, one
even went a step further and re-posted Kodak’s Chapter 11 FAQ page on their Web
site, with a statement saying, “Kodak scanners are among the most popular
document scanners sold on the market today. If you have any concerns that it’s
not ‘business as usual’ after the Chapter 11 filing, please select the FAQ
button on the left hand button bar.”
Going forward, the company plans to focus on its on
most valuable business lines. However, to continue that growth, Kodak realizes
some assets may need to be sold and liabilities managed. As a part of that
push, Kodak has recently consolidated its business operations into two
divisions: consumer and commercial. And since 2003, Kodak has closed 13
manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs and reduced its workforce by
47,000 employees. Cardot mentioned that acquisitions and mergers are a part of
the normal course of doing business and could be evaluated.
In an effort to boost revenue, Kodak also plans to
fully enforce Kodak intellectual property rights against industry players that
have infringed upon digital imaging patents, or sell its patents. Over the past
few weeks, the company has announced lawsuits against Fujifilm Corporation,
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Apple Inc. and HTC Corporation for infringement
of certain Kodak patents.
Kodak announced its filing for bankruptcy protection
on January 19th. According to the company, Kodak received a $950
million credit from Citigroup to maintain operations during the bankruptcy
process, which is slated to end in 2013. The Kodak representatives BLI spoke
with said they are confident Kodak will come out of this process a leaner, more
sustainable company.
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