The US-owned corporate giant is facing well-publicised problems internationally, but its printing operations remain strong in this region, where some segments are growing at 100%, said the company’s local managing director.
Adrian Fleming told ProPrint the solid Asian performance had flow-on positives for Australian printers.
“We have made commitments to the market on many occasions that while these things are happening we will continue to deliver products to market as expected. None of this noise is impacting our customers at all and the past few months in Australia have backed that up,” said Fleming.
He believed Kodak continued to outpace competitors in certain sectors.
“In Asia, our packaging segment has a 100% annual growth rate. Newspapers have grown by 12%, especially in India and China, where literacy rates are increasing. I don’t think our competitors would be in a similar situation.”
He added that Kodak’s publishing business was also growing at 12%, while there has been growth of 40% across digital, which includes its Nexpress production machines, Prosper inkjet presses and Prosper imprinting heads
“We have four full-colour Prosper 5000XL machines in the Asian market… two sites with two machines each in South Korea and Japan.”
Fleming stressed that despite ongoing issues with some suppliers overseas, Kodak’s local supply lines were rock solid.
“We have had commitments from the vast majority of our major suppliers so see no reasons why any of our supplies should be interrupted and the past few months in Australia have been testament to that.”
He pointed out Kodak’s increasingly Asian portfolio, which includes six manufacturing plants and three R&D centres.
“From a manufacturing standpoint, the vast majority of our suppliers have continued to supply Kodak as if it was business as usual. That is why we are able to continue to deliver on time, high-quality products and the same level of goods and services as prior to this situation,” added Fleming.
The company has continued to invest in R&D, with a host of new technology on the cards for Drupa.
Fleming said he expected its Kodak Imprinting Systems to be a winner in the local market, following six installs in Australia, including Quality Press in Western Australia.
He said the range of retrofittable inkjet printheads can now match the speeds of conventional web offset presses, unlike the competing products set to be launched by HP at Drupa.
“[HP’s] run at 800 feet per minute. Talk to a web printer – their machines run at 2,500-3,000 feet per minute,” added Fleming.
At Drupa, Kodak will demonstrate the Kodak S20 heads, which can reach 2,000 feet per minute in B&W and four-colour, and will also preview the S30 heads, which can hit 3,000 feet per minute in mono.
“Speed is key when you look a web presses. If you have to slow that press down to 25-30% of press capacity, you wipe out a huge amount of revenue. When you run the head at press speed, you have zero impact on production,” said Fleming.
Last month, Kodak’s managing director of the Asia-Pacific region, Lois Lebegue, told ProPrint that the company would reorient itself more toward the Asian market.
“When we recover and come out of Chapter 11, the centre of gravity will move more in to Asia-Pacific,” said Lebegue.
“We are seeing more and more of our manufacturing capacity being moved to Asia-Pacific, more and more of our R&D capacity moved to Asia-Pacific, so our global footprint and go-to market is growing year over year,” added Lebegue.
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