End of the line for Kodak, the firm that lost its focus?

By JOHN ROSS
Published on Friday 20 January 2012 00:57

PLEASE don’t take my Kodachrome away, sang Paul Simon, but it seems the end is being brought sharply into focus for the iconic photographic pioneers that brought snapshots to the masses.

Eastman Kodak, the firm that invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the Moon, has filed for bankruptcy protection as it fights to stay in business.

One of the world’s best known brand names, in the 1970s Kodak had a 90 per cent market share of photographic film sales in the US.

But it has endured a prolonged plunge in fortunes and has been struggling financially since the 1990s.

Industry experts say it failed to respond to the advance of new technology, including digital cameras, ironically a product it invented.

The move to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection comes after Kodak failed to find a buyer for its trove of 1,100 digital imaging patents.

The firm, based in Rochester, New York, said in November that it could run out of cash in a year if it did not sell the patents, which it hoped would fetch billions.

Yesterday it said it has secured $950 million (£615m) in financing from Citigroup, and expects to be able to operate its business during bankruptcy reorganisation and pay employees.

The loan and bankruptcy protection from US trade creditors may give Kodak the time it needs to find buyers for some of the digital patents and reshape its business while continuing to pay its 17,000 workers.

Antonio M Perez, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said: “After considering the advantages of chapter 11 at this time, the board of directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak.”

The firm has already closed 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and cut its workforce by 47,000 since 2003.

In recent years, Mr Perez has steered Kodak’s focus more toward consumer and commercial printers. But that failed to restore annual profitability, something Kodak has not seen since 2007, or arrest a cash drain that has made it difficult for Kodak to meet its substantial pension and other benefits obligations to its workers and retirees.

According to experts at one of the most important collections dedicated to the brand name – Kodak deserved to become a museum piece.

The Kodak Museum Collection is based at he National Media Museum in Bradford. Colin Harding, curator of photographic technology at the museum, said yesterday: “It is sad but we have to bear in mind in business there is no place for sentiment and nostalgia.

“If people do not buy your brands or services there is no future regardless of how well known your brand is or how long it has been around.

“For over a century Kodak has been a part of our lives. So it is sad it might disappear but business is business and times are hard.

“Kodak has been struggling for many years because they have not come to terms with the massive changes from digital photography. So this was on the cards for some time.”

Kodak was founded by high school dropout George Eastman in 1880. Eight years later he pioneered the first simple camera with the slogan “you press the button, we do the rest” for £25. In 1900 Eastman introduced the first of the popular Brownie cameras, selling for just $1.

The first commercial transparent roll film also enabled inventor Thomas Edison to develop the first motion picture camera in 1891, and by 1896 Kodak was marketing film specially coated for motion picture use. Since then 80 Oscar-winning Best Pictures have been shot on Kodak film.

When John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, Kodak film recorded his reactions to travelling through space at 17,400 miles per hour and when the Apollo 11 astronauts became the first to walk on the moon, a special stereoscopic colour camera built by Kodak enabled them to photograph extreme close-ups of rocks, dust, and minute features of the surface.

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christelijk_recht

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 07:13 AM

Oh dear, oh dear. Gratispool in St Margaret's Place that made photography affordable and possible for me half a century ago - long gone. And now even Kodak itself. KODAK! ................................................................................................................................ Sic transit gloria mundi !

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celticbeekeeper

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 03:54 AM

There was the manufacturing & processing factory at Harrow-Wealdstone, a facility at Rayners Lane and one in South Ruislip back in the 1960's and 70's. Then various departments were moved to a new location at Stevenage. The last I saw of the location at South Ruislip was vacant land where the buildings had once been. Harrow-Wealdstone was quite vast and also had extensive staff facilities like football, rugby and hockey grounds and a recreation facility that included a theatre, canteen and an indoor .22 calibre rifle range. Quite a company back then.

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Abel Magwitch

Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 02:28 AM

Yes it is the end of an era, comparable to the demise of the manufacturing of radios and TVs in Britain. A point of local interest...what is happening with Kodak UK? I recall that there was a huge Kodak plant in the Harrow area north of London, so are those jobs at risk or have they gone already?

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