Kodak is back – with a focus on Asia-Pacific

Some of the older generation might remember Kodak, or Eastman Kodak Company, once the leader on the analog photographic market in the 1970s and 1980s that, however, completely missed out on the transition to the digital camera market that began in the 1990s – and this although the company invented the core technology used in current digital cameras as early as in 1975 but did not develop it further, marking one of the biggest misjudgements in modern business history.
In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection under US Chapter 11, 124 years after is was founded by American innovator George Eastman. It sold off most of its patents, and on September 3, 2013, emerged from bankruptcy protection, reborn as a small digital imaging company.
Kodak in its new business strategy will now focus primarily on the Asia-Pacific market, said its vice-president for marketing in Asia-Pacific, Evandro Matteucci, at a press briefing on September 13 in Bangkok. Kodak will now offer commercial products such as high-speed digital printing and printing on flexible packaging for consumer goods, Matteucci said.
Among the customers he seeks to address are newspapers, publishing houses, as well as printing and enterprise services with a regional focus especially on Japan, China, India, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia, but the regional hub will be in Thailand, a country were the Kodak brand is still “iconic and well known”, he said.
He added that “with its added-value and widened printing solutions, Kodak will help customers to create new business models and expand into new markets to grow their bottom line.”
Since 2007, the last year Kodak posted a profit, the company has laid off some 24,000 employees. Its stock has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2012. The last share price was $0.36 against an all-time high of $94.75 in 1997.
[caption id="attachment_15415" align="alignleft" width="300"] Those were the days: Kodak's analog film portfolio[/caption] Some of the older generation might remember Kodak, or Eastman Kodak Company, once the leader on the analog photographic market in the 1970s and 1980s that, however, completely missed out on the transition to the digital camera market that began in the 1990s - and this although the company invented the core technology used in current digital cameras as early as in 1975 but did not develop it further, marking one of the biggest misjudgements in modern business history. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection under US...

Some of the older generation might remember Kodak, or Eastman Kodak Company, once the leader on the analog photographic market in the 1970s and 1980s that, however, completely missed out on the transition to the digital camera market that began in the 1990s – and this although the company invented the core technology used in current digital cameras as early as in 1975 but did not develop it further, marking one of the biggest misjudgements in modern business history.
In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection under US Chapter 11, 124 years after is was founded by American innovator George Eastman. It sold off most of its patents, and on September 3, 2013, emerged from bankruptcy protection, reborn as a small digital imaging company.
Kodak in its new business strategy will now focus primarily on the Asia-Pacific market, said its vice-president for marketing in Asia-Pacific, Evandro Matteucci, at a press briefing on September 13 in Bangkok. Kodak will now offer commercial products such as high-speed digital printing and printing on flexible packaging for consumer goods, Matteucci said.
Among the customers he seeks to address are newspapers, publishing houses, as well as printing and enterprise services with a regional focus especially on Japan, China, India, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia, but the regional hub will be in Thailand, a country were the Kodak brand is still “iconic and well known”, he said.
He added that “with its added-value and widened printing solutions, Kodak will help customers to create new business models and expand into new markets to grow their bottom line.”
Since 2007, the last year Kodak posted a profit, the company has laid off some 24,000 employees. Its stock has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2012. The last share price was $0.36 against an all-time high of $94.75 in 1997.