Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Kodak sold only 10% of the film stock it hoped to in 2014

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Topic: Kodak sold only 10% of the film stock it hoped to in 2014

Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 10-13-2014 06:22 PM

quote: TWC News, Rochester - my emphasis
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Despite expectations of revenue growth in the second half of 2014, Kodak is facing cuts to its workforce.

In a statement, the imaging company announced Wednesday that 85 positions will be eliminated. About 70 of those cuts are in Rochester.

“If there's a good thing about these layoffs, is we're not talking about hundreds or thousands of people - we're talking about tens of people,” said Brighton Securities President George Conboy. “It’s still a disaster if you're one of those people, but for the community, the impact thankfully is very small.”

Conboy said these layoffs can be attributed to the decline in film.

"The simple reason for these layoffs at Kodak can be expressed in two words: motion picture. Kodak isn't selling anywhere near as much motion picture film as they hoped to during 2014," said Conboy.

Kodak sales of motion picture film have declined by 96 percent over the last 10 years, due to the conversion of digital film.

Hollywood studios stepped up to keep motion film in production. In July, several studios agreed to buy enough movie film from Kodak to keep the plant open. Conboy said that wasn't enough to help the ailing industry.

"Kodak has sold only 10 percent of the motion picture film that it hoped to sell for calendar year 2014, way behind plan. Here's a case of a company looking to cut costs. From my understanding, only one of those studios has actually signed on to that deal," Conboy said.

Kodak said the cuts are an effort to re-engineer some of its operations and that the job reductions will not impact delivery of products or service to customers. It also stated that the move will ensure costs are in line with its business priorities and financial commitments.

Conboy said the future of Kodak could still be blurry.

“What I would expect to see is Kodak's head count at the end of 2014 lower than today and at the end of 2015 lower than today. Beyond that, it’s hard to judge."

The affected employees are expected to be notified on Thursday.

The significant things (to me) are in bold. 1 - Film stock sales continued to freefall in 2014, and from quite a low base, not much of which will have been print stock any more. 2 - The much celebrated deal between Kodak and the studios, allegedly brokered by Tarantino, Spielberg and other celebs doesn't appear to have been closed.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 10-13-2014 06:32 PM

You wouldn't expect studios to keep their promises, would you? I'm afraid, if Tarantino & co. really want to ensure film production for the foreseeable future, they probably need to get themselves directly involved, maybe together with film archives and other stakeholders in the future of film.

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Steve Matz
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 672
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 10-13-2014 09:46 PM

Kodak cut it's own throat; they were experimenting with Digital back in the 70's and actually built the very 1st Digital Camera in 1975. I'm not sure if they were fearful what this technology would do to their Profitable Film Industry(Which it eventually did)and abandoned it hoping no one else would continue perfecting the technology or they thought Film was here forever and this would be a passing Fad..

Well,they dropped the Ball with whatever they were thinking and now their paying dearly for it. They already have one foot in the Grave and the other is not far behind. I still believe they really didn't know what hit them, as fast as Digital took over the Industry. They could have been at the top of the Heap if they had moved forward with Digital back then.

Too Bad,because the name KODAK was practically a household name for over a 100+ years and seeing a well known Corporation like that slowly heading for it's grave is quite sad...

Kodak's First Digital Camera from 1975

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Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012

posted 10-14-2014 02:29 AM

quote: Steve Matz
Well,they dropped the Ball with whatever they were thinking and now their paying dearly for it.

I totally agree, the execs should of thought about the future. I remember when Blackberry laughed at Apple and Blockbuster never really took Netflix all that seriously. Funny enough, Netflix started out as mail/dvd service but they correctly saw the future of streaming and now they have 55 million subscribers in 53 countries.

It is a shame what has happened to Kodak.

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